narrative with a journalist's curiosity

The cannibals return to Crusoe's for abundant and realistic detail

island and Crusoe is obliged to attack Defoe's novel is narrated using the
them in order to save their two first-person narrator, a device that
prisoners: one is a Spaniard and the allows the reader to feel close to the
other is Friday's father. A week later a protagonist and to follow his
ship is sighted. Crusoe boards the adventures in a very realistic way
ship and can now return to England.
On his way home he discovers that
his plantation has been very
successful which makes him a very
rich man.
A FICTIONAL BIOGRAPHY
The story of Robinson Crusoe is
Defoe's invention yet rendered with
such attention to small detail as to
make readers of the day see it as fact.
The tale of Robinson Crusoe is
presented as a fictional autobiography
with the now old Robinson looking
back on his life and adventures. The
use of an omniscient, first-person
narrator enables the reader ti
understand and share Crusoe’s
feelings.
Crusoe's account is characterised by
extraordinary attention to detail,
reflecting both Crusoe's commercial
profession and Defoe's own
involvement in both trading and
journalism. In the Puritan tradition,
Crusoe keeps a diary on the island
through which he not only adds a
sense of veracity to his story but also
provides a record of his moral
progress. Addressed to an expanding
middle-class readership, Defoe's
language, as we have seen, is direct
and simple.
ECONOMIC MAN
This shows that Defoe invested his
novel with a didactic, moral purpose
as he demonstrates the power of
divine Providence in saving a
castaway who has sinned by
abandoning his family and forgetting
his religious teaching.
LANGUAGE
Defoe's use of language reflects the
climate of the time. The Royal
Society, founded in 162, had
advocated a use of language that was
close to the speech of 'artisans,
countrymen and merchants, and
Defoe's long experience as a
journalist had taught him the value of
simple prose, addressed to an
audience of 'honest meaning ignorant
persons': Defoe writes in plain,
simple prose creating a powerful