Robinson Crusoe

The action took place in the 17th century

The main characters:
Robinson Crusoe - The novel’s protagonist and narrator. Crusoe begins
the novel as a young middle-class man in York in search of a career.He
wasn't taught any craft and from the childhood he dremt of the sea. He
father recommends the law, but Crusoe yearns for a life at sea, and his
subsequent rebellion and decision to become a merchant is the starting
point for the whole adventure that follows. His vague but recurring feelings
of guilt over his disobedience color the first part of the first half of the story
and show us how deep Crusoe’s religious fear is. Crusoe is steady and
plodding in everything he does, and his perseverance ensures his survival
through storms, enslavement, and a twenty-eight-year isolation on a desert
island.As a man of trade, Crusoe is very interested in acquisition of goods
and wealth, and here we can see him tallying up his stock and profit.
Friday - A twenty-six-year-old Caribbean native and cannibal who converts
to Protestantism under Crusoe’s influence. Friday becomes Crusoe’s
servant after Crusoe saves his life when Friday is about to be eaten by
other cannibals. Friday never appears to resist or resent his new servitude,
and he may sincerely view it as appropriate compensation for having his
life saved. But whatever Friday’s response may be, his servitude has
become a symbol of imperialist oppression throughout the modern world.
Friday’s overall charisma works against the emotional deadness that many
readers find in Crusoe.
The Portuguese Captain - The sea captain who picks up Crusoe and the
slave boy Xury from their boat after they escape from their Moorish captors
and float down the African coast. The Portuguese captain takes Crusoe to
Brazil and thus inaugurates Crusoe’s new life as plantation owner. The
Portuguese captain is never named—unlike Xury, for example—and his
anonymity suggests a certain uninteresting blandness in his role in the
novel. He is polite, personable, and extremely generous to Crusoe, buying
the animal skins and the slave boy from Crusoe at well over market value.
He is loyal as well, taking care of Crusoe’s Brazilian investments even after
a twenty-eight-year absence. His role in Crusoe’s life is crucial, since he
both arranges for Crusoe’s new career as a plantation owner and helps
Crusoe cash in on the profits later.

Summary:
Act I: Before the Island
Before landing on the island, Crusoe's father wants him to be a good,
middle-class son. Crusoe, who wants nothing more than to travel the world
in a ship, is definitely not into this idea. He struggles against the authority of
both his father and God and decides to thumb his nose at both by going on
a seafaring adventure instead.
After sailing around a while, he makes a bit of money in trade, but then gets
captured and made into a slave off the coast of Africa. Here, he befriends a
young man named Xury, with whom he escapes from captivity. Picked up
by a Portuguese sailing captain, Crusoe makes it to Brazil, where he buys
a sugar plantation. He does fairly well financially, but soon becomes
involved in a venture to procure slaves from Africa. On the voyage out, he
gets shipwrecked and is left as the only survivor on a deserted island.
Act II: Life on the Island
This portion of the novel is dedicated to Crusoe's time alone on the island.
He builds three main structures: his initial shelter, his country home on the
opposite side of the island, and his guns and ammo fort in the woods. He
spends his time planting corn, barley, and rice. He learns to make bread.
He builds furniture, weaves baskets, and makes pots. Crusoe also raises
goats and tends to his little animal family of cats, dogs, and a parrot. Most
importantly, though, Crusoe becomes stronger in his religious faith,
eventually submitting to the authority of God. He devotes himself to much
religious reflection and prayer.
Act III: Escape from the Island
In final section of the book, Crusoe sees a footprint on the shore one day
and learns that he is not alone on the island. There are also (gasp!)
cannibals. Crusoe struggles with the question of whether or not he should
take revenge on them. Eventually, he meets with Friday, a native man
whom he is able to rescue from the cannibals. Crusoe teaches Friday
English and converts him to Christianity. The two become like father and
son (more or less). Friday and Crusoe also rescue a Spaniard and Friday's
father from a different group of cannibals.
Eventually, an English longboat full of sailors lands on the island. Crusoe
learns that the men have mutinied against their captain. After Crusoe helps
restore order to the ship, the men and captain pledge allegiance to Crusoe
and agree to take him home. Crusoe then returns to Europe with Friday,
where he comes into a great deal of money from his sugar plantations.
Crusoe gets married and eventually revisits the island in his later years.
The novel ends with promise of more adventures in the sequel.
Genre:
Robinson Crusoe is, quite frankly, a very exciting adventure story. There
are sailing ships and stormy seas and a desert island and guns and
cannibals and, well, basically a whole bunch of rollicking action in exotic
and faraway places. Basically, it set a standard for all other adventure
stories that followed.
symbolism:

The Sea
As a mariner and traveler, the sea plays a pretty big part in Crusoe's life.
Whenever a storm hits the ocean, Crusoe is immediately penitent and begs
God for help. When the skies are clear and the waves are calm, Crusoe
seems to forget all about that religious stuff. For example:
In a word, as the Sea was returned to its Smoothness of Surface and
settled Calmness by the Abatement of that Storm, so the Hurry of my
Thoughts being over, my Fears and Apprehensions of being swallow'd up
by the Sea being forgotten, and the Current of my former Desires return'd, I
entirely forgot the Vows and Promises that I made in my Distress. (10)
The ever-changing sea serves as a useful metaphor for Crusoe's fickle
relationship with God.
The Bible
Three Bibles are among the wreckage of the ship. The Bible is hugely
important for Crusoe's time on the island, as it will serve as his moral
compass and means of spiritual reformation.
…also I found three very good Bibles which came to me in my Cargo from
England, and which I had pack'd up among my things. (56)
The book is a symbol of Crusoe's connection to God and later becomes a
tool with which to teach Friday the basics of Christianity.
The Flu
Crusoe might have been spiritually sick, but it's not until he becomes
physically ill that he decides to save his soul. In the grips of the flu (or
"Ague" as Crusoe calls in on page 75), Crusoe has a fever dream in which
a man comes down from the heavens and admonishes him for not yet
repenting, and tries to kill him with a spear. He begins to see that his past
behaviors have been sinful and his present miseries are punishments for
his rebellious behavior. He finally repents and utters his first prayer. This is
the beginning of Crusoe's spiritual life.
The Footprint
Crusoe sees that fatal on the island and realizes that (gasp!) he's not alone.
He describes the scene as follows:
It happen'd one Day about Noon going towards my Boat, I was exceedingly
surpriz'd with the Print of a Man's naked Foot on the Shore, which was very
plain to be seen in the Sand: I stood like one Thunder-struck, or as if I had
seen an ghost; I listen'd, I look'd round me, I could hear nothing, nor see
any Thing, I went up to a rising Ground to look farther, I went up the Shore
and down the Shore, but it was all one, I could see no other Impression but
that one, I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if
it might not be my Fancy; but there was no Room for that, for there was
exactly the very Print of a Foot, Toes, Heel, and every Part of a Foot; how it
came thither, I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. But after
innumerable fluttering Thoughts, like a Man perfectly confus'd and out of
my self, I came Home to my Fortification, not feeling, as we say, the
Ground I went on, but terrify'd to the last Degree, looking behind me at
every two or three Steps, mistaking every Bush and Tree, and fancying
every Stump at a Distance to be a Man; (130)
Why might the footprint be terrifying to Crusoe?
Cannibals
The cannibals on the island offer Crusoe an opportunity to reflect on the
differences between cultures. Should he interfere in their affairs or not?
Should he judge their actions, or leave that up to God? He reflects on the
topic in the following passage:
Religion joyn'd in with this Prudential, and I was convinc'd now many Ways,
that I was perfectly out of my Duty, when I was laying all my bloody
Schemes for the Destruction of innocent Creatures, I mean innocent as to
me: As to the Crimes they were guilty of towards one another, I had nothing
to do with them; they were National, and I ought to leave them to the
Justice of God, who is the Governour of Nations, and knows how by
National Punishments to make a just Retribution for National Offences; and
to bring publick Judgments upon those who offend in a publick Manner, by
such Ways as best pleases him. (146)
After much thought, Crusoe realizes that he cannot kill the cannibals, as
that would be taking up God's office. It's up to God to punish nations of
people who do wrong, not the individual man. Note, however, that Crusoe
does later decide to intervene in the cannibals' actions when he sees that
they are ready to kill and eat a Spaniard. Why?