Robinson Crusoe - Daniel
Defoe
Plot Overview-
Robinson Crusoe, as a young and impulsive wanderer, defied his
parents and went to sea. He was involved in a series of violent storms at sea
and was warned by the captain that he should not be a seafaring man.
Ashamed to
go home, Crusoe boarded another ship and returned from a successful trip to
Africa. Taking off again, Crusoe met with bad luck and was taken prisoner in Sallee. His captors sent Crusoe out to fish, and he used this to his advantage
and escaped, escaped, along with a slave.
He was rescued by a
Portuguese ship and started a new adventure. He landed in Brazil, and, after
some time, he became the owner of a sugar plantation. Hoping to increase his
wealth by buying slaves, he aligned himself with other planters and undertook a
trip to Africa in order to bring back a shipload of slaves. After surviving a
storm, Crusoe and the others were shipwrecked. He was thrown upon shore only to
discover that he was the sole survivor of the wreck.
Crusoe
made immediate plans for food, and then shelter, to protect himself from wild
animals. He brought as many things as possible from the wrecked ship, things
that would be useful later to him. In addition, he began to develop talents
that he had never used in order to provide himself with necessities. Cut off from
the company of men, he began to communicate with God, thus beginning the first
part of his religious conversion. To keep his sanity and to entertain himself,
he began a journal. In the journal, he recorded every task that he performed
each day since he had been marooned.
As
time passed, Crusoe became a skilled craftsman, able to construct many useful
things, and thus furnished himself with diverse comforts. He also learned about
farming, as a result of some seeds which he brought with him. An illness prompted
some prophetic dreams, and Crusoe began to reappraise his duty to God. Crusoe
explored his island and discovered another part of the island much richer and
more fertile, and he built a summer home there. One of the first tasks he
undertook was to build himself a canoe in case an escape became possible, but
the canoe was too heavy to get to the water. He then constructed a small boat
and journeyed around the island. Crusoe reflected on his earlier, wicked life,
disobeying his parents, and wondered if it might be related to his isolation on
this island.
After
spending about fifteen years on the island, Crusoe found a man's naked
footprint, and he was sorely beset by apprehensions, which kept him awake many
nights. He considered many possibilities to account for the footprint and he
began to take extra precautions against a possible intruder. Sometime later,
Crusoe was horrified to find human bones scattered about the shore, evidently
the remains of a savage feast. He was plagued again with new fears. He explored
the nature of cannibalism and debated his right to interfere with the customs
of another race. Crusoe was cautious for
several years, but encountered nothing more to alarm him. He found a cave,
which he used as a storage room, and in December of the same year, he spied
cannibals sitting around a campfire. He did not see them again for quite some
time.
Later,
Crusoe saw a ship in distress, but everyone was already drowned on the ship and
Crusoe remained companionless. However, he was able to take many provisions
from this newly wrecked ship. Sometime later, cannibals landed on the island
and a victim escaped. Crusoe saved his life, named him Friday, and taught him
English. Friday soon became Crusoe's humble and devoted slave.
Crusoe
and Friday made plans to leave the island and, accordingly, they built another
boat. Crusoe also undertook Friday's religious education, converting the savage
into a Protestant. Their voyage was postponed due to the return of the savages.
This time it was necessary to attack the cannibals in order to save two
prisoners since one was a white man. The white man was a Spaniard and the other
was Friday's father. Later the four of them planned a voyage to the mainland to
rescue sixteen compatriots of the Spaniard. First, however, they built up their
food supply to assure enough food for the extra people. Crusoe and Friday
agreed to wait on the island while the Spaniard and Friday's father brought
back the other men.
A
week later, they spied a ship but they quickly learned that there had been a
mutiny on board. By devious means, Crusoe and Friday rescued the captain and
two other men, and after much scheming, regained control of the ship. The
grateful captain gave Crusoe many gifts and took him and Friday back to
England. Some of the rebel crewmen were left marooned on the island. Crusoe
returned to England and found that in his absence he had become a wealthy man.
After going to Lisbon to handle some of his affairs, Crusoe began an overland
journey back to England. Crusoe and his company encountered many hardships in
crossing the mountains, but they finally arrived safely in England. Crusoe sold
his plantation in Brazil for a good price, married, and had three children.
Finally, however, he was persuaded to go on yet another voyage, and he visited
his old island, where there were promises of new adventures to be found in a
later account.
Being
alone on island, Crusoe fulfills his wish to be the king of island. He also
behaves with same attitude as Englishman. He becomes the master of Friday as
his duty to make other people civilize .Thus as above discussion, we may
conclude that Robinson Crusoe becomes the source of the theme Imperialism and
Capitalism of the novel ‘ Robinson Crusoe.’
Reference –
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