Matthew Cirbo

Bell A1/2
2-14-17
Robinson Crusoe - Character Analysis

Without a struggle, there can be no progress. ~Mahatma Gandhi~

Change can make one gain experience. The protagonist Robinson Crusoe evolved throughout

the novel through natural disasters, along with the death of his shipmates, causing the trauma of

loneliness.

Natural disasters are one of the forces that cause change. This happens in this novel a

lot. There was a big storm that caused the crew of the ship to get off track. Although, the

experienced shipmates thought that it was very big (Defoe 12-14). Change caused that

experience. Robinson also got stuck as a slave in Africa before he tried to escape. When he

escaped, he got on a ship that then got in a shipwreck (56-60). After getting stranded on a

desert island and staying there for 26 years, he found his shipwreck just outside of his island

(238-239).

Death also causes change. With his first shipwreck, Robinson was singled out and

separated (Defoe 83) on a desert island full of cannibal hide-outs (235). These cannibals came

every 15 months to have a feast of human flesh (235). After these cannibals came and left, he

thought he heard a gun fire out at sea, later seeing a probable second (238-239). This later

proved to be a ship that was signaling for help when it was caught in a storm. Robinson knows

this because he saw a shipwreck with no survivors, seeing a boys drowned body wash up on

shore (241-242).

Lastly, a force that causes change is trauma. When he was still in Africa with Negroes,

he fired his gun at a wild beast, causing them to be very scared and traumatized (39). When

Robinson had his first shipwreck on a desert island, there were no survivors. This caused him to

be very lonely. When this happened a second time with the second shipwreck, he cried,Oh,

that there had been but one or two, nay, but one soul saved out of the ship, to have escaped to
me, that I might but have one companion, one fellow creature, to have spoken to me, and to

have conversed with! (240) He also cried, Oh, that it had been but one! (241)

Robinson changes with trauma of loneliness caused by death, and also natural

disasters. To gain experience, one has to change, and Robinson did just that.