The writer of this astonishing book is Daniel Defoe, a writer who
has written more then 500 books, articles and poems. Although not
very many of these books became big hits in their time one of them
really stands out from the rest. And the name of this book is
Robinson Crusoe. This was the book that put Daniel on the radar, and
this book is what really made his whole authorship grow big. After
the release of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe wrote seven books
through the next seven years, all of whom became highly appreciated
by the public, since many had read Robinson Crusoe and wanted to see
if this pretty much unknown author could deliver once more. With this
said we can easily draw the conclusion that Robinson Crusoe was the
book that made Daniel Defoe famous. Some other books worth mentioning
are “Moll Flanders”, “Captain Singleton”, “Colonel Jack”,
and “Roxana”.
The book itself was influenced by the story of a Scottish sailor
who got left by his shipmates on the island Juan Fernandez. He lived
here for five years before he was rescued by a ship.
1
This was a well known story and there are many things in the book
that are strangely similar to this mans story. Some people even claim
that Daniel interviewed the sailor before writing “Robinson
Crusoe”.
The book was published in 1719 and the genre it usually gets put
in is the “Adventure” category, but I myself would try to slide
it in to the “Romance” category as well since it takes place in
an exotic place, and consists of different tribes of people with
devilish traditions. These things are common in the romantic genre,
and the book was written in a time of romance. Another thing that I
noticed was that the book is very connected to its time period. At
the time of the release of the book great parts of Europe were in the
so called “Enlightenment” era. The most important part of the
enlightenment was that everything was supposed to be based on
science. Anything that could not be proven by science, for example
god, was not true. Now you might be wondering what this has to do
with Robinson Crusoe, well the thing that connects these two, is the
fact that everything the main character of the book makes, he creates
by using science and common sense, sure he is a believer and he
relies on god most of the time, but it is noticeable that by the end
of the book he seems to be very unsure if god really exists since it
was his knowledge and common sense that made it possible for him to
survive for so long without the necessity’s of the modern society.
Therefore I believe that there are some nods towards the
enlightenment throughout the book, encouraging people to take stand
against the church and to question the things that do not make sense
even if the questions are religious. Daniel really does this in a
smart way since it is not noticeable unless you actually put it all
together.
When it comes to the story of the book itself it is very easy to
interpret the different things at hand. As soon as you start reading
the book you realize that it is taking place at the same time as the
book was written, at the beginning of the 18
th century.
The story it self plays out over a long period of time, many years to
be exact, it jumps from day to day following what Crusoe himself
thinks is important to mention. All through the book Crusoe writes in
an old book, it is through his writing we get to experience the
story, so you can say that it is read through the main characters
thoughts but at a later time, when the book has made it back to
civilization. This makes it really easy to connect to the main
character in the book, but it also makes it easier to understand the
different things that happens in the book, because he explains it
with his own words instead of making a description of the entire
situation at hand.
The entire story takes place on an undisclosed island, I presume
somewhere down in the southern hemisphere. The setting is therefor
jungle like with a mix of sea, and mountains, but it is as far from
civilized as you can come, almost the entire story takes place
without any civilized surroundings what so ever. It is only in the
beginning and a little bit at the end that takes place in cities,
villages etc.
People who have read this book usually say that Robinson Crusoe is
like the ideal man of his time, and I agree. He has all the qualities
that seemed important at the time. He was intelligent, he had
knowledge about different proffesions like carpeting, farming,
fighting and most importantly he had common sense. All of these
abilities made it possible for him to survive on this island, and at
the time of this book, the things that you could do by yourself, were
highly liked. Therefor people really bonded to this man, and I think
that is a big reason why the book became so appreciated.
There is one important character except from Crusoe, and he's name
is Friday. This is a name that Crusoe gives to him after he has saved
him from cannibals. The man is a native and therefor Crusoe thinks of
him as his slave. He even tricks Friday into calling him master, just
to prove that he is the dominant of the both. But as the story goes
along Crusoe starts to notice that the differences between him and
Friday are very few and that Friday to is an intelligent and very
friendly person. After some time Crusoe decides to tell Friday that
he has been calling him by a name that makes Friday look like a
slave. Friday gets very frustrated and says that he is a free man
just as Crusoe. Until this time Crusoe has always seen himself as the
better man, but at this point he understands that he and Friday are
the same, and after the dust off that follows, Crusoe treats his
friend as an equal.
I believe that this carries another important message to the
readers. In a way Defoe is trying to encourage the fight against
slavery, and he does this in a good way. By making people understand
that Friday and Crusoe are the same, he has made people believe that
the same goes in real life. This was kind of new at the time, and by
doing this I actually think that Defoe helped plant the seed that
would later lead to things as the American civil-war etc.
Overall this book is well written, and at its time it was
refreshing and very enjoyable to read. It contained everything that
people at the time thought was important, and it also helped people
to see how they were doing the wrong things in this world. If we put
all of this together we come to the conclusion that this is a very
good book, and I am surprised that it was as good as it was. I
usually don't like books from this era but for once I was satisfied.
Therefor I recommend that everyone at least try to read this book,
because if you make it through the entire thing, you will be very
pleased.
Conclusion
According to me this is a great book that should be read by
everyone at least once, and I enjoyed it very much, it really makes
me understand how people were thinking back then, but I also saw that
there were people who were trying to do the right thing and fight the
injustice against slavery amongst other things. I give this book a
thumbs up and I hope that after you have finished reading this you
will want to give it a try as well. The language is fitting for
people at any age, from fifteen and upwards. It is exciting most of
the time and you do not get bored whilst reading it.
And with that said I leave it up to you, the reader to decide if
it is worth your time.