FREE ESSAY ON ROBINSON CRUSOE

ROBINSON CRUSOE

Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, led a rather dramatic life, just like the
character described in his novel. He had played various roles throughout his life. He
used to be a successful merchant, though went out of business later. He published The
True-Born Englishman, which was awarded by William III, and he also the author of The
Short Way With The Dissentions, because of which he was sent to the court since the
article ridicule the policy the government had taken towards the national church. When he
was producing the novel Robinson Crusoe, he was already over sixty years of age. The
novel was presented out of a real story of a seaman and it gained great popularity as
soon as it was published. It goes beyond any literary codes or restrictions. Deniel Defoe
with great independence of creativity made his novels a model of a completely new
literary style and just because of this he was awarded as the father of the English and
European novels.
In the novel, Robinson Crusoe was a young Englishman with great interests in traveling in
sea. He abandoned the peaceful life of his hometown village and went out to the sea.
Unfortunately their ship was attacked by a storm. However Robinson was the only one who
survived and was stuck on an island. In order to live on the deserted island, he
cultivated small farmlands and raised animals with his own hands and wisdom. After he
saved a savage, whom he names Friday and made him his slave, the small island was changed
into a tiny society. Before he returned to his homeland he had stayed on the small island
for twenty-eight years.
Robinson Crusoe was the first novel, which describe the creative activity of human beings
with a rather different method compared with many other novels of his time. Defoe
regarded labor as a great motivation of the society and praised it with elaborate words.
Although Robinson was lost in the island away from the society which he lived in, he
still has the ability to work, to create, to make a living in the lonely island out of
his own hands. And it was just this ability which made it possible for him to lead a
quite comfortable life there.
The crash of his boat and the death of his fellowmen mean that the world on which he used
to depend on had ended, and he had to start from the beginning. The main problem Robinson
was facing was to live, that is, to eat, drink, and get warm under the most severe
conditions. With no ready-made tools and the help of other people, the only thing he
could depend on was his own hands and wisdom.
Robinson chose the best moment to swim to the shipwreck when the tides were down checking
whether there were anything left that were not destroyed by the water and he could make
use of. And then he made a raft with the wood on the sunken ship and loaded it with
necessary food for life and also some guns in order to protect himself from the savages.
However it was not an easy job to accomplish that. He finished it with several steps and
each of them was a great challenge. There was one time he even almost made his raft up
side down. For twelve times he went between the shore and the raft by jumping and
swimming until the last piece of tools was safely carried to the raft.
The new life began and gradually developed. First Robinson got things and foods readily
from the nature and later on he began to grow things and raise animals. What's more,
Robinson also dug caves in which he could live more comfortable and away from the rain
and snow outside. At the same time he made chairs, tables and even poetry for cooking
though he had failed numerous times. Robinson got a feeling through his hard work: No joy
at a thing of so wan a nature way even to mine, when I found I had made an earthen pot
that would bear the fire, and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold, before I
set one upon the fire again, with admirably well, and with a piece of a ----lid I made
some very good broth, though, I wanted oatmeal. And several other ingredients requisite
to make it so good as I would have Had it been.
Robinson lived on the island for 28 years, 28 years of struggle against the nature.
During the years he made his own farm, herds, and even slaves and he was the winner of
the struggle.
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