Robinson Grusoe

[center][b][color=black][font='Blackadder ITC']Robinson Crusoe[/font][/color][/b][/center]


[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]1- THE MAIN MESSAGE OF THE NOVEL[/color][/b][color=black] [b]:[/b][/color][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]The novel has different messages; everybody may see something else as its main meaning. I think that Defoe wanted to tell us about a modern man through a great psychologic analysis. All of us can feel identified in the characters of Robinson and Friday in some way. We increasingly tent to be individualistic characters, we change and alter nature in order to find some benefits, without prejudices, and we try to survive in the daily jungle of society. Regarding Friday's character, we are all born in savage conditions, we are educated day by day to form part of a society, to become integrated members, if a person does not follow the rules, he/she suffers the punishment of society, and is ignored or left apart. Regarding religion, I think that people can identify with Crusoe's weakness and vulnerability; most of human beings entrust our soul to God when we struggle in life. My conclusion for the novel is that if you are a good Christian, a hard and organised worker, a rational person sets the basis for success in life and it is also the means to get victory.[/color][/b][/font]





[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]2- STYLE AND GENRE[/color][/b][b][color=black] :[/color][/b][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]This paper is a study of Daniel Defoe's novel, Robinson Crusoe. This novel is considered an adventure story, a moral tale, a commercial accounting and a Puritan fable. Robinson Crusoe, a travel and shipwreck adventure story, is the prototype of modern European literature. It is supposed to be based on Selkirk sailor story because Defoe himself never experienced a shipwreck. The novel is the product of a prolific writer of narrative realism with great deal of imagination. It is categorised within the fiction genre, while it seems a realistic story of marvellous insights into human nature, the struggle in relation with God, other races and nature. It is written in a direct style, often journalistic. The action of the story is fully interpreted and commented by the narrator. The novel also represents an internal journey that searches the creation of an identity through the analysis of mental and physical conditions. The major difference between Robinson Crusoe and other books dating from this time is that the reader can identify himself with the characters. The book is also entertaining and even amusing to read. This represents a big contrast to most contemporary novels that stuck to unreality and dull patterns. At that time, most stories were basically chronicles of wonderful and magic events that did not attempt to resemble any human life. Robinson Crusoe is a combination of the picaresque novel, as it contains autobiographical patterns, and a personal journal that accounts daily struggle and evolutions, however, it also includes the technic of describing many trivial events in order to make the story more realistic, which has become a common aspect of almost every novel to date.[/color][/b] [/font]

[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]3- THEMES AND CHARACTERS [/color][/b][b][color=black]:[/color][/b][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]The central themes in the novel are the inter-racial relationship, moralism, religion, philosophical and social beliefs. Another interesting subject is the strong spirit of survival through the anxious solitude and struggle of a shipwrecked man who has to face a new life and domain nature. All through the book a moral sense is constantly kept. It starts when Robinson defies his father's advise, gets in trouble, enslaved, shipwrecked, and in every occasion, he gets and learns the best of it. In fact, Crusoe feels a real sinner; he was never able to see the signs God sent him, however, he receives the grace of God all the time. As a Puritan soul testing a solitary ordeal, Robinson realises that internal matters in life prevail on external. From this moment onwards, and without feeling homesick or missing his civilised society, basically the protagonist desires to be relieved from his past sins. The isolation and solitude experienced by Robinson points out the idea of finding a new sense to life through the exploration and exploitation of nature and the creation of a new world.[/color][/b][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][b][color=black]It also has a strange economic sense. The 18th century belief that God, morality and economics are all somehow one. Robinson Crusoe embodies the conquest of North American people, the domination of nature, the transformation of wilderness into culture, and eventually, the victory. The rescue of Friday, a "wild creature", supposes to undertake a religious conversion and to educate him into civilised habits. However, Puritans thought that the inhabitants of the New World were to be ignored, killed, or used as servants, as it happens indeed with Friday's father, the cannibals and Friday himself. Contrary to that, the Catholic principle was to convert the savages and to incorporate them into the Christian community, as the only way to spread the Christianism.[/color][/b][color=black] [b]The trading bourgeoisie, the expansion of London into the commercial centre of Europe and the further establishment of the British colonial empire shapes the idea of colonisation. The novel is a vivid representation of the Western colonisation that undoubtedly overcomes wilderness, nature and the uncivilised world.When the shipwreck occurred, Robinson is plunged into a survival act. That implies that Robinson's main task is to transform the wild island into a civilised place, a really hard work as he lacks of tools to do it properly. The story also contains a tribute to work. The majority of the story describes the protagonist efforts at mundane tasks undertaken in the island. The weapons and tools Robinson rescues from the shipwrecks help the protagonist to carry out many of his activities to survive - hunting, fishing, agriculture, and craftsmanship. The main idea is that God places human beings on earth to work. Definitely, their efforts contribute to reach anything desired.[/b] [b]Besides that the important idea of colonisation is mainly articulated when Friday is rescued from the cannibals. From this moment, a complex relationship is developed through Robinson's interaction and Friday response. Robinson wishes many times to have a companionship, but a companionship under his dominance, as he thinks to kill Friday if he does subject to his will. Finally, violence is not needed because Friday submits to Robinson's orders in gratitude for having being rescued. Friday voluntarily accepts a lifelong servitude under a mutual verbal agreement. Indeed, Robinson exercises total authority on Friday; who must obey and be useful to his master. Furthermore, a kind of intimacy between these opposite men is developed, a feeling of brotherhood that exceeds Robinson's colonising position.[/b] [b]When Robinson says: "I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke....", indeed it reveals Robinson's objective of teaching the savage English language, Western habits, and the new name of Friday with which the savage is rebirthed are obvious attempts for suppressing the savage's culture and wild nature. Language is the powerful element that allow communication between Robinson and Frisay, but the use of the English language, the civilised language, reveals authority and dominion over under races.[/b][/color][/font]

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