Robinson Crusoe Review

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.