Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe - Essay Example

ROBINSON Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe “stands alone in the array of literature of travel and adventure. This is the story of a human being who struggles hard for survival in an outlandish situation. Robinson’s decision to go away from his parents, against their will, was due to his weariness of the conventional profession and the fear of failure in future. This story tells about the diverse ways in which a man muddles through reality when hardship comes and shaping his own world in absolutely alien circumstances. The text fairly deals with the relation between man and nature, man and culture, and his relation with God. Daniel Defoe had done a good job to bring Robinson to the wilderness of deserted island by a shipwreck, which was essential for the rebuilding of his own future. It was the only event which was a turning point in the life of Robinson Crusoe. It was the ending of his otherwise prolonged journey. The moments he spent there were teaching him new lessons. Slowly he recognized the environs, the features, the objects which were offered to him. In his own words, “the total nature itself fetch him essentials for his life”. The fear of solitude surrounded him there. This led to the construction of his shelter. It was necessary for him to become self sufficient in every matters like food, drink, animal husbandry, and plantations. When he noticed the miraculous growth of the corns he realized that these are the results of fate ,"for it was the work of Providence as to me, that should order or appoint, that the ten or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, as if it had been dropped down from Heaven" ( Defoe, 79). Man has such a particular nature to develop special qualities for the improvement in a totally alien surroundings. Defoe filled his hero with the power and strength. For this he uses his own religious believes also. It is Crusoe’s Christianity that helps him to attain richness both spiritually and financially. In that way he became a real colonizer. Thus Defoe represents the island as a symbol of the outside world. All the time Crusoe was trying to recreate his past life. There was surely a conflict arises in the mind of Crusoe, a conflict that of a civilized man and unsophisticated circumstances. Every actions of the hero were that of a civilized man. He learnt to meet all the necessities from the neighboring materials itself. The materials and the nature itself generated ideas in the mind of the hero. These ideas can be treated as intuitions or insights the primitive man was able to receive from the nature. This was the steps which led to modern civilization. Next we could see the struggling of the colonizer to civilize the place according to his conceptions. As a civilized person, he recreated all the basic elements of civilization which, according to Will Durant, were “economics provision, political organization moral traditions and pursuit of knowledge”. Being civilized is a slow process. It takes time and reason. Crusoe had to find essential supply of water and food during that time, had to start constructing huts and other things, he had to invent productive tools and domesticates animals. During those days Crusoe was filled with exploring the island in different ways. Those were his first actions in the island. After meeting his primary needs of food and shelter, he made a boat which he used to travel to different parts of the world .Thus Crusoe began to enjoy the life in solitude. “It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days” (Defoe 113). The island was a small paradise for him. He used his own tool to met his need of chair and table, when he was in need of a shovel he made it, he planted in the land, kept herds of goat, slowly he became the master of that place. He declared himself “The king” of that place .In his own words “Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed by resigning myself to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of His providence . “This made my life better than sociable for when I began to regret the want of conversation I would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts and with even God himself, by ejaculations, was no better than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world? “. After twelve years of solitude Crusoe identified the print of a man’s naked foot, along with bones of man and signs of cannibalism. Crusoe was badly in need of a companion, when he saw the footprints of a human being. The barrenness of loneliness chased him, even if he was able to sustain a good life. This is the nature of a real human representative. Civilization is possible only in a society, richness alone cannot support it. . Building a society of human beings at the so long barren island was the task undertaken by Defoe. At first he brought “Friday “as a cannibal, to the island. It was a conscious effort .After years when the island possesses all the basic needs of civilization and Friday becomes civilized, Defoe allows him to meet the representatives of modern civilization. At first Crusoe felt a kind of insecurity when he met the cannibal, but he overcomes it later by making Friday, his servant and slave. This is a typical colonial mind. The protagonist’s relationship to Friday encapsulates the colonial myth in general. The way in which Crusoe behaved to Friday was clearly depicted as the ways to civilize the savage. Except the fact that Friday was a cannibal, Crusoe taught him to wear cloth, make fire and food. Friday was a” noble savage” typical example of conceit of Western intellectual tradition. Despite the fact that he was an uncivilized savage, he showed the attributes of a real human being of obedience, and professed undying gratitude and loyalty. What he lacked was a proper direction. Crusoe here acted as a director and a civilized instructor. Friday became an essential part of his life,” their lives changed from this point on "…now with Friday helping, life became more easy." (105). The religious vision of Crusoe is surely a conscious effort of Defoe. He injected those visions to the savage also. Searching religious solutions to all the sinful experiences and deeds was a custom of the English at the time of Defoe. Crusoe’s comforts and consolation was Bible. He also believed in gradual salvation through self punishment. It is clear that Defoe here attempts to transport the English society and civilization to Crusoe’s island. Later we saw that in another shipwreck some English men with their captain were brought to the island. Crusoe rescued them also only to master them. He found himself as the “Lord and Lawgiver“of all. In his own words “My Island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made, how like a king I looked.” Defoe’s criticism of the English society is evident from this .and is compared to the modern life with all its comforts and that in the confinement of island, though it is not possible for a common man. “Robinson Crusoe“ is a fine example of the contemporary English society. Crusoe was able to create familiarity in the unfamiliar environment. Instead of going back to the uncivilized culture, Defoe made him propagate what was known to him. At the final stage Crusoe’s mind was longing for a go back to his own culture, leaving all that was valuable for him. It is evident that no man can plug up the roots of his own culture and civilization in which he was born and brought up. Defoe uses the twenty seven years of confinement for the purification of the hero. The slow and gradual changes in the island and the solitude made him discover what the need of a human being was. Thus after creating a new civilized society in the uninhabited island with all richness Defoe made him sail to his native place. Here nature reshapes the hero and brings back to his native place to enjoy the modern civilized world. Work cited Defoe Daniel, Robinson Crusoe, Dover Publications, England, 1998 Durant Will, The story of Civilization, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1968 Read More