timeline of robinson crusoe journey

Robinson Crusoe Timeline and Summary

• Crusoe's father wants him to be a good, middle-class guy, but Crusoe wants to have adventures on the high seas. He struggles against the authority of both his father and God and decides to go adventuring on the sea.
• Crusoe makes a bit of money in trade.
• Next, he's 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.
• Crusoe soon becomes involved in a venture to procure slaves from Africa. On the voyage there he gets shipwrecked and is left as the only survivor on a deserted island.
• 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.
• Crusoe 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.
• Alone on the island, Crusoe becomes stronger in his religious faith, eventually submitting to the authority of God. He devotes himself to much religious reflection and prayer.
• One day, Crusoe sees a footprint on the shore one day and learns that he's actually not alone on the island. There are also cannibals…
• 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.
• Friday and Crusoe rescue a Spaniard and Friday's father from a different group of cannibals.
• 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 late years.

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W hy's T his F unny?

A Summary and Analysis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Robinson Crusoe, often called the first English novel, was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. The novel is the tale of one man’s survival on a desert island following a shipwreck. Published in 1719, the book didn’t carry Defoe’s name, and it was offered to the public as a true account of real events, documented by a real man named Crusoe. But readers were immediately sceptical.

In the same year as the novel appeared, a man named Charles Gildon actually published Robinson Crusoe Examin’d and Criticis’d , in which he showed that Crusoe was made up and the events of the novel were fiction. The name ‘Crusoe’, by the way, may have been taken from Timothy Cruso, who had been a classmate of Defoe’s and who had gone on to write guidebooks.  

What follows is a short summary of the main plot of Robinson Crusoe , followed by an analysis of this foundational novel and its key themes.

Robinson Crusoe : summary

The novel, famously, is about how the title character, Robinson Crusoe, becomes marooned on an island off the north-east coast of South America. As a young man, Crusoe had gone to sea in the hope of making his fortune. Crusoe is on a ship bound for Africa, where he plans to buy slaves for his plantations in South America, when the ship is wrecked on an island and Crusoe is the only survivor.

Alone on a desert island, Crusoe manages to survive thanks to his pluck and pragmatism. He keeps himself sane by keeping a diary, manages to build himself a shelter, and finda a way of salvaging useful goods from the wrecked ship, including guns.

Twelve years pass in this way, until one momentous day, Crusoe finds a single human footprint in the sand! But he has to wait another ten years before he discovers the key to the mystery: natives from the nearby islands, who practise cannibalism, have visited the island, and when they next return, Crusoe attacks them, using his musket salvaged from the shipwreck all those years ago.

He takes one of the natives captive, and names him Man Friday, because – according to Crusoe’s (probably inaccurate) calendar, that’s the day of the week on which they first meet.

Crusoe teaches Man Friday English and converts him to Christianity. When Crusoe learns that Man Friday’s fellow natives are keeping white prisoners on their neighbouring island, he vows to rescue them. Together, the two of them build a boat. When more natives attack the island with captives, Crusoe and Friday rescue the captives and kill the natives. The two captives they’ve freed are none other than Friday’s own father and a Spanish man.

Crusoe sends them both off to the other island in the newly made boat, telling them to free the other prisoners. Meanwhile, a ship arrives at the island: a mutiny has taken place on board, and the crew throw the captain and his loyal supporters onto the island.

Before the ship can leave, Crusoe has teamed up with the captain and his men, and between them they retake the ship from the mutineers, who settle on the island while Crusoe takes the ship home to England.

Robinson Crusoe has been away from England for many years by this stage – he was marooned on his island for over twenty years – and his parents have died. But he has become wealthy, thanks to his plantations in Brazil, so he gets married and settles down. His wife dies a few years later, and Crusoe – along with Friday – once again leaves home.

Robinson Crusoe : analysis

Robinson Crusoe is a novel that is probably more known about than it is read these days, and this leads to a skewed perception of what the book is really about. In the popular imagination, Robinson Crusoe is a romantic adventure tale about a young man who goes to sea to have exciting experiences, before finding himself alone on a desert island and accustoming himself, gradually, to his surroundings, complete with a parrot for his companion.

In reality, this is only partially true (although he does befriend a parrot at one point). But the key to understanding Defoe’s novel is its context: early eighteenth-century mercantilism and Enlightenment values founded on empiricism (i.e. observing what’s really there) rather than some anachronistic Romantic worship of the senses, or ‘man’s communion with his environment’.

And talking of his environment, Crusoe spends the whole novel trying to build a boat so he can escape his island, and leaves when the first ship comes along. While he’s there, he bends the island’s natural resources to his own ends, rather than acclimatising to his alien surroundings.

In this respect, he’s not so different from a British person on holiday in Alicante, who thinks speaking English very loudly at the Spanish waiter will do the job very nicely rather than attempting to converse in Spanish.

This tells us a great deal about Robinson Crusoe the man but also Robinson Crusoe the novel. It was written at a time when Britain was beginning to expand its colonial sights, and it would shortly become the richest and most powerful country on earth, thanks to its imperial expeditions in the Caribbean, Africa, and parts of Asia, notably India.

Crusoe embodies this pioneering mercantile spirit: he is obsessed with money (he even picks up coins on his island and keeps them, even though he cannot spend them), and takes great pleasure in the physical objects, such as the guns and powder, which he rescues from the wreck. Man Friday is, in the last analysis, his own private servant.

But was Robinson Crusoe the first such ‘Robinsonade’? Not really. This, from Martin Wainwright: ‘There is a tale for our troubled times about a man on a desert island, who keeps goats, builds a shelter and finally discovers footprints in the sand. But it is not called Robinson Crusoe. It was written by a wise old Muslim from Andalusia and is the third most translated text from Arabic after the Koran and the Arabian Nights.’

That book is The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan , known as the first Arabic novel (just as Robinson Crusoe is often cited as the first English novel), written in the twelfth century by a Moorish philosopher living in Spain.

Yes, Robinson Crusoe wasn’t the first fictional narrative to take place on a desert island, although it has proved the most influential among English writers.

Although Defoe is widely believed to have been influenced by the real-life experiences of the Scottish man Alexander Selkirk (who spent over four years alone on a Pacific island, living on fish, berries, and wild goats), one important textual influence that has been proposed is Hai Ebn Yokdhan’s book.

Severin cites the case of a man named Henry Pitman, who wrote a short book recounting his adventures in the Caribbean (not the Pacific, which is where Selkirk was marooned) following his escape from a penal colony and his subsequent shipwrecking and survival on a desert island.

Pitman appears to have lived in the same area of London as Defoe, and Defoe may have met Pitman in person and learned of his experiences first-hand. It is also revealing that both men had taken part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 (in the wake of which, at Judge Jeffreys’ infamous ‘Bloody Assizes’, Defoe was lucky not to be sentenced to death).

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2 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe”

Ummm.. who was “the wise old muslim”? What was the book? Another precursor is Henry Neville’s The Isle of Pines, pub;ished a few years earlier. https://www.cbeditions.com/GoodMorningMrCrusoe.html for another intreresting history and meditation on RC.

• Pingback: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer. * | dual personalities

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Robinson Crusoe

Introduction to robinson crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe , a canonical foundation in the art of novel and story writing. It was long considered a true story instead of a work of fiction , causing confusion about the author with the hero of the story. It was first published in English on the 25 th of April, 1719. Since its first publication, it has been termed a didactic, confessional, epistolary , and colonial story as well as a travelogue. The story of Robinson Crusoe spans over 28 years of his isolation on an island where he encounters different types of people and animals and learns to survive against all odds. The novel is also a subject of various critiques , picturizations, graphics, and even stage plays., Robinson Crusoe with its simple narrative style was well received in the world of literature and is often credited to being the beginning of realistic fiction in the genres of literary.

Summary of Robinson Crusoe

The storyline opens with Robinson Crusoe, an English boy, living in York of 17 th century England. As the son of a German merchant, Crusoe is told during his childhood to study law, but his love for the sea does not hold him back from expressing his strong desire to his father about voyages to the far-off lands. His father, instead wanted him to find a secure job for himself. Robinson initially wanted to obey his father but could not resist the temptation of fulfilling his longing. So, despite staunch familial opposition and paternal advice, Robinson leaves for London after boarding a ship in the company of his friend. Although his friend leaves him on the next voyage, Robinson does not budge from his stand despite facing a terrible storm during the journey.

However, he wins some financial success after which he makes another plan for such a journey. He leaves his profits in the care of a nice widow. But, he then becomes a victim of Moorish pirates, as well as abduction and becomes, is enslaved to a ruler in the North African town of Sallee. During a fishing expedition, he along with a slave and sail through the coast of Africa . A kind Portuguese captain picks them up and buys the slave boy from Robinson. He takes him to Brazil where he becomes a plantation owner successfully. He then leaves for West Africa on a slave-gathering expedition to bring slaves for his plantation but faces a storm on the way in which his ship is wrecked on the coast of Trinidad.

When Robinson comes to his senses, he sees that he is the sole survivor of the shipwreck and that he would have to fend for himself. Soon he becomes busy making a shelter for himself and preparing food. He returns to the wreckage to extract some food, gunpowder, and a gun and creates a cross to write his date of arrival; September 1, 1659. Soon he becomes an inmate of a shelter he has prepared, rearing goats he finds there on the island. He also maintains a journal to keep a track of everything he does like cleaning his hut, grazing goats, attempts at making candles, discovering sprouting grain, etc. After a while, on June 1660, he finds himself on the deathbed due to an illness and an angel warns him to repent.

However, while drinking tobacco-steeped rum, he experiences exoneration from his sins as God relieves him from this sickness. Soon he busies himself surveying the area and finds that he is on an Island. He constructs a retreat for himself after he declares himself as to its king. He domesticates some animals, makes things of everyday use, and builds a boat for himself to navigate the sea around the island. When he rows around the Island one day, he nearly dies but is thankfully saved as he hears his parrot calling his name once he reaches the shore. Crusoe enjoys several years in peace with his pets and animals when one day he discovers footprints on the seashore. He first thinks that the footprints are that of the devil’s, but later decides that it must be the cannibals. Finally, he arms himself and creates an underground cellar for himself and his pets to live in safety. He hears gunshots yet does not discover anything except a shipwreck the following day.

When he investigates that shipwreck, he sees footprints of cannibals. This alarms him and he keeps a lookout for the cannibals. He later discovers one victim killed and several cannibals chasing another victim. This victim heads straight toward Crusoe who offers him protection, kills the pursuer, and makes others run for their lives. Robinson being well-armed kills most of the cannibals onshore. The victim Robinson saved, becomes his servant for life whom he names Friday to commemorate that day of his life. They start living together in that part of the island where Robinson has built his hut. He finds Friday to be intelligent and starts teaching him English and the biblical concepts of God, life, and death. He, on his part, explains to him about cannibals and tells him about the Spaniards who survived the shipwreck. After this, both of them build a boat but soon find cannibals with three victims landing on their seashore. They fire at them, making them flee for their lives, leaving four victims behind, one of who happens to be the father of Friday which makes him overjoyed. The four men return to Robinson Crusoe’s dwelling and he welcomes them to join his community permanently.

After some days, Friday announces the arrival of a ship with an alarm. When the boarders come on the island, they discover that they are rebels with some captives, including the captain of the ship, which was was taken in mutiny. They chase the mutineers around the island until they surrender, including their ringleader. They make the men bring the ship at which Robinson becomes much elated, showing them that the island is the English territory and that they cannot run away from justice . Finally, when he returns to his home in 1686, he finds that only two of his sisters are alive and the rest of the family members have breathed their last. After retrieving his money from his widow friend, he learns about his planation of Brazil and sells it to have more money that he donates to the widow and his sisters and turns into a catholic to lead a peaceful life. He gets married and after his wife died, Robinson finally leaves as a trader for the East Indies in 1694. He also revisits his island to see it being ruled well by the Spaniards and that it become a wealthy colony.

Major Themes in Robinson Crusoe

• Christianity: The theme of Christianity is significant in the course of the novel through the physical journey of Robinson Crusoe to the island that is also a representation of his spiritual journey to become a good Christian. His initial disregard of the religious beliefs confirms this proposition that he considers his life faithless due to the warning of his father about God has not blessed him. His dream about his non-repenting attitude and his study of the Bible on the island confirms this assumption that Robinson has turned to Christianity and is engaged in its propagation. Also, it gives him a way out from his confusion and provides him with some solace during these dark moments on the island. This long and arduous rumination about religion provides him some confirmation about his belief’s miracle in the shape of Friday, his servant, and an English captain. Some other such incidents and happenings, which first seem disastrous for him, later prove blessings only because of his leanings toward Christianity in that he considers them God’s will and care for him.
• Society: Society and social interaction is another major significant theme of the novel in that Robinson Crusoe flees from his family, including trying to escape from his middle-class social relations in England. It is, in a sense, an escape from responsibilities as well as the obligation of adhering to the social framework. However, when he lands on the island, he comes to know about the value of people and social relations and immediately makes Friday his companion to make a sense of the isolated living. His view of prioritizing his own life over that of the social life by leaving toward the sea shows that he is fed up with the society, which he, later, thinks is necessary for the balanced growth of an individual to survive. However, in another sense, it is also appropriate for an individual to be isolated to learn the value of society as Robinson learns it.
• Individuality: The novel shows the theme of individuality through Robinson Crusoe’s desire of leaving English society despite his father’s warnings. When he is shipwrecked and ends up on an island, he learns about his individuality and the difficulties a person faces when they remain away from society. He also learns to live a sustainable life of independence that is free from the stress of everyday preoccupations and tensions. His final return to the English society, however, confirms to him that the individuality of a person can only prosper in a balanced lifestyle in a social setup where he has the will to leave the social fabric and then return to it when he wants. Yet what he values the most is his liberty and freedom that no harassing father or torturing relations could make a person to be loaded with cares and preoccupations.
• Isolation: Isolation is torturing and also enriching from the social and spiritual point of view . Robinson Crusoe, when he faces himself all alone on the island, not only finds himself isolated from the society but also from his family and faith. However, this isolation from society teaches him the value of self-living and self-reliance, patience, and socialization. When he makes Friday his comrade, he also learns that isolation teaches a person to have others at his beck and call , though, it seems quite contradictory to his freedom-loving nature. This isolation and loneliness bring him close to God and Christianity as he starts preaching later in life after his return to England.
• Independent Living: Self-reliance or independent living is another theme that Robinson Crusoe highlights through his life on the island. When he is alone on the island, he builds his own hut, and also domesticates different animals for his benefit, and starts using Friday for himself, though, at the surface level he is imparting his knowledge. His acts of escape from the master and his plantation in Brazil and later its sale and purchase point to his thinking of living an independent life away from the fever and fret of the daily living of the English urban life.
• Civilization: The theme of civilization unfolds when Crusoe is stranded on an island following the shipwreck. He lives in the wild, taking the fittest of survival to his heart. However, he soon starts spreading civilization when he domesticates animals and parrots and teaches the English language and Christianity to Friday. In one sense, this becomes a tool to spread the civilization that Kipling has called a white man’s burden.
• Nature: Nature and the impact of its forces on human beings in setting the course of their lives is another major theme that Crusoe shows through his story. It entails not only human nature but also natural forces. When Crusoe does not pay heed to his father’s advice, it is the rebellion of his nature, but when he faces a shipwreck, it is the wrath of the natural forces. Ultimately, he comes to know that his own nature mixed with the natural forces could balance the life of a person.
• Colonialism: The novel is highly seductive in presenting the theme of colonialism. Robinson Crusoe’s desire to execute his voyages to different lands and his desire to materially profit from his voyages are a reflection of human desire and the English bent of mind. Although the sane voice of his father restrains him for some time, he finally breaks the barrier by setting out to different islands. His idea of having a plantation in Brazil and its final sale is also a sign of the colonial mind to profit from such ventures.
• Morality: The novel also shows the theme of the existence of a moral framework although it is mostly based on English and Christian morals. Robinson Crusoe considers it his moral duty to save Friday to whom he later teaches Christianity and civilization. He saves several others and kills the cannibals chasing them, considering it a morally upright task.
• Self-Reliance: Crusoe presents the theme of self-reliance through his character that he faces the question of his survival in provision and fending off the animals at the island.

Major Characters Robinson Crusoe

• Robinson Crusoe: Robinson Crusoe is the protagonist of the novel and demonstrates character traits that make him worthy of praise as the hero of the story. His persistence against his father’s advice of not leaving home for his voyages, his perseverance in building a boat and domesticate animals, and his hard work of teaching Friday and sharing The Gospel and English education set him apart in the list of heroes used in the stories of those times. In this connection, Robinson not only shows his resourcefulness but also his intelligence in that he is able to survive on the island and cultivate nature to assist him to leave the island that he ultimately does. His intelligence is also evidenced in his act of investing in the Brazil plantation and saving his life when he is on the boat. However, his character is not without flaws; he is, in a sense, incentivizing colonialism. Despite this, his generosity of giving gifts to his family and others, his assistance to humanity, and his concern for human beings are praiseworthy qualities that win him the love of his family and friends.
• Friday: Friday is the second significant character of Robinson Crusoe, who appears on the scene when Robinson saves him on the island from becoming a victim of the cannibals. However, it proves that he is inferior to him in physical use of power and also in intelligence. Robinson teaches him English language and introduces Christianity. Friday finally becomes his student, as Robinson also trains him to domesticate parrots and goats. Friday also provides solace to Robinson Crusoe in the torturing and trying isolation of the island and proves himself a comrade for him to assist him when he needs him the most. The appeal of his personality lies in the exotic attraction that he exudes for Crusoe when expressing his love for the English man.
• Portuguese Captain: The Captain saves Crusoe from the bloodthirsty Moors and permits him to board his ship to go to Brazil. Robinson Crusoe, in his turn, establishes himself as the owner of the plantation over there, becoming a rich man. The second time he comes into contact with Robinson is when he returns home and the captain ensures him the safety of his plantation in Brazil and Captain arranges to sell at a hefty profit and brings money to him. His timely and appropriate assistance to Robinson wins him laurels from the readers also which is suggestive of his being a tool for the entrepreneur spirit. His coincidental appearance for the second time in the novel suggests the role of providence in the course of the novel as a miracle where human beings seem looking toward God for divine assistance in mundane matters. His morally upright position in conducting safe deals for Robinson wins him the admiration of the readers.
• The English Captain: The English Captain is testimony to the Englishness of Robinson Crusoe when Robinson saves his life on the island. The captain promises to rescue Robinson to take him back. Both of them fight against the mutineers to wrest the ship from their possession and help each other to return to the crew/civilization. The meeting of both the English men also testifies to better ingenuity and education.
• The Spaniard: The Spaniard is saved by Robinson from becoming a likely victim of the cannibals after his ship was wrecked near the island where Robinson has been living. He becomes compliant to Crusoe, considering him the owner of the island, and works for him until he and Crusoe both leave the island for good.
• Xury: Xury lies is also a non-white character who becomes Robinson’s friend when both of them join hands with slaves to escape Sallee island in a boat when others flee but they stay on the boat. Robinson, however, sells this pliant boy to the Portuguese captain, showing the English mentality of occupying human beings and humanity of that time.
• Robinson Crusoe’s Wife: Robinson Crusoe’s wife lives a respectable life in England with their children. However, when she departs from the scene after her death, he again takes to his addiction to voyaging and leaves England, showing the power of femininity of settling down the patriarchal wayward spirit.
• The W idow : A widow is an honest person who keeps Robinson’s 200 pounds safe when he travels around the world and continues for more than three decades. Her goodwill extends to Robinson Crusoe when he returns and gets back his money.
• Will Atkins: Will Atkins is known for his rebellion against the English captain who later refuses to forgive him due to his severity toward him during the mutiny. However, Robinson leaves him on the island to save his life.
• Robinson Crusoe’s Nephews and Sisters: Robinson’s family members, his two sisters, and nephews are minor and known for his familial relations. He brings them up with English traditions, making one of them a sailor and the other a good gentleman.

Writing Style of Robinson Crusoe

The writing style of Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe is simple and direct in the first-person narrative as told by Robinson himself, the main narrator . The presentation of details to show realism through a travelogue demonstrates the journalistic capability of the author but at the same time, he has also used long sentences and spare use of adjectives . As far as the devices are concerned, the author is dexterous in the use of metaphors and extended similes along with rhetorical devices of pathos , ethos , and logos . The use of navigational jargon and maritime vocabulary has also played a role in lending credence to Robinson’s story.

Analysis of the Literary Devices in Robinson Crusoe

• Action: The main action of the novel comprises the whole life, growth, and voyages of Robinson Crusoe until the end of his life in England. The rising action occurs when Crusoe shows disobedience to his father and leaves for a voyage with a merchant. The falling action occurs when he faces a shipwreck on his second adventure and finds himself stranded on an island at the mercy of animals and cannibals.
• Allegory : The novel is an allegory as it shows Crusoe justifying his actions on moral and religious grounds when he starts teaching Christianity and the English language to Friday.
• Allusion : The novel shows good use of different allusions such as, i. I knew where my Patroon’s Case of Bottles stood, which it was evident by the make were taken out of some English Prize; and I convey’d them into the Boat while the Moor was on Shoar, as if they had been there before, for our Master: I convey’d also a great Lump of Bees-Wax into the Boat, which weighed above half a Hundred Weight, with a Parcel of Twine or Thread, a Hatchet, a Saw and a Hammer, all which were of great Use to us afterwards; especially the Wax to make Candles. (77) ii. As I had been one Voyage to this Coast before, I knew very well that the Islands of the Canaries , and the Cape de Verd Islands also, lay not far off from the Coast. (81) iii. The same Day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the Northward upon our own Coast, with Design to stretch over for the Affrican Coast, when they came about or  Degrees of Northern Latitude, which it seems was the manner of their Course in those Days. (93) iv. Notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the Manner of making our Prayers to God, and his being able to hear us, even into Heaven; he told me one  Day, that if our God could hear us upbeyond the Sun, he must needs be a greater God than their Benamuckee , who liv’d but a little way off, and yet could not hear, till they went up to the great Mountains where he dwelt, to speak to him. (240) The first example shows allusions of navigation and marine life, the second of geographical locations, the third of geographical jargon, and the last of Biblical tales.
• Antagonist : Natural calamities and sea storms are the main antagonists of the novel as they appear to obstruct all avenues for Robinson Crusoe to force him to try his surviving human skills.
• Conflict : The novel shows both external as well as internal conflicts. The external conflict is going on between Robinson Crusoe and his father, then between Crusoe and cannibals and animals, and then between Crusoe and the mutineers. The internal conflict, however, is going on in the mind of Crusoe about his actions and his behavior vis-à-vis the advice of his father.
• Characters: The novel shows both static as well as dynamic characters. The young man, Robinson Crusoe, is a dynamic character as he shows a considerable transformation in his behavior and conduct by the end of the novel. However, all other characters are static as they do not show or witness any transformation such as Friday, The English captain, Xury, or even his father.
• Climax : The climax in the novel occurs when Robinson Crusoe finds himself trapped on the island after confronting the storm in which his ship is wrecked.
• Foreshadowing : The novel shows many instances of foreshadows such as, i. I Was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York ,* of a good Family, tho’ not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen ,*who settled first at Hull . (62) ii. I observed in this last Part of his Discourse , which was truly Prophetick, tho’ I suppose my Father did not know it to be so himself; I say, I observed the Tears run down his Face very plentifully. (64) The mention of his father, his father’s profession, and then of his own tears show that Crusoe is going to have trying times ahead.
• Hyperbole : The novel shows various examples of hyperboles such as, i. I expected every Wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the Ship fell down, as I thought, in the Trough or Hollow of the Sea. (66) ii. I got up out of my Cabbin, and look’d out; but such a dismal Sight I never saw: The Sea went Mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four Minutes. (68) iii. Then all Hands were called to the Pump. At that very Word my Heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the Side of my Bed where I sat, into the Cabbin. (70) These examples exaggerate things as the wave swallowing up, the sea high as mountains, and the heart has died.
• Imagery : Robinson Crusoe shows the use of imagery as shown in the below examples, i. It happen’d one time, that going a fishing in a stark calm Morning, a Fog rose so thick, that tho’ we were not half a League from the Shoar we lost Sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we labour’d all Day and all the next Night , and when the Morning came we found we had pull’d off to Sea instead of pulling in for the Shoar; and that we were at least two Leagues from the Shoar: However we got well in again, tho’ with a great deal of Labour, and some Danger; for the Wind began to blow pretty fresh in the Morning; but particularly we were all very hungry. (76) ii. The Mouth of this Hollow, was at the Bottom of a great Rock, where by meer accident, (I would say, if I did not see abundant Reason to ascribe all such Things now to Providence) I was cutting down some thick Branches of Trees , to make Charcoal; and before I go on, I must observe the Reason of my making this Charcoal; which was thus. (206) These two examples show images of color, light, and sight.
• Metaphor : Robinson Crusoe shows good use of various metaphors as given in the below examples, i. I cast my Eyes to the stranded Vessel, when the Breach and Froth of the Sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far off, and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on Shore? (98) ii. My Thoughts were now wholly employ’d about securing my self against either Savages, if any should appear, or wild Beasts, if any were in the Island. (107) iii. How can he sweeten the bitterest Providences, and give us Cause to praise him for Dungeons and Prisons. What a Table was here spread for me in a Wilderness , where I saw nothing at first but to perish for Hunger. (182) These examples show that several things have been compared directly in the novel such as the first shows his eyes as if they are a net, the second his thoughts as if they are hooks , and the last the island as if it is a table.
• Mood : The novel shows various moods; it starts on a happy and optimistic note but turns out highly somber and dreadful as it moves and ends in a hopeful mood .
• Motif : Most important motifs of the novel are isolation, individuality, society, and religion.
• Narrator : The novel is narrated from the first-person point of view, who is the protagonist, Robinson Crusoe. The novel starts when he starts his narrative of navigating the seas and ends when he returns home after long voyages.
• Personification : The novel shows examples of personifications such as, i. The Wave that came upon me again, buried me at once 20 or 30 Foot deep in its own Body; and I could feel my self carried with a mighty Force and Swiftness towards the Shore a very great Way. (97) ii. She lay almost where she did at first, but not quite; and was turn’d by the Force of the Waves and the Winds almost Bottom upward, against a high Ridge of Beachy rough Sand; but no Water about her as before. (163) iii. In my viewing the Sea from that Hill where I stood, I perceiv’d a strong, and indeed, a most furious Current, which run to the East , and even came close to the Point; and I took the more Notice of it, because I saw there might be some Danger; that when I came into it. (174) These examples show as if the waves, boat, and the sea have the life of their own.
• Protagonist : Robinson Crusoe is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry and moves forward as he grows young and takes up to voyaging across the oceans and living on the islands.
• Rhetorical Questions : The novel shows good use of rhetorical questions at several places such as, i. But judge you, if you can, that read my Story, what a Surprize I must be in, when I was wak’d out of my Sleep by a Voice calling me by my Name several times, Robin , Robin , Robin Crusoe , poor Robin Crusoe , where are you Robin Crusoe ? Where are you? Where have you been? (178) ii. I do not mean, that I entertain’d any Fear of their Number; for as they were naked, unarm’d Wretches, ’tis certain I was superior to them; nay, though I had been alone; but it occurr’d to my Thoughts, What Call? What Occasion? much less, What Necessity I was in to go and dip my Hands in Blood, to attack People, who had neither done, or intended me any Wrong? (252) This example shows the use of rhetorical questions posed by Robinson Crusoe to himself not to elicit answers but to stress upon the underlined idea.
• Setting : The setting of the novel is somewhere in Africa, Brazil, and then some island in the Atlantic as well as England.
• Simile : The novel shows good use of various similes as given in the examples below, i. I added a Wick of some Oakum, I made me a Lamp; and this gave me Light, tho’ not a clear steady Light like a Candle. (67) ii. I made me a Cave just behind my Tent, which serv’d me like a Cellar to my House. (109) iii. I went out with my Gun and kill’d two Fowls like Ducks, which were very good Food. (119) iv. I had a short Jacket of Goat-Skin, the Skirts coming down to about the middle of my Thighs; and a Pair of open-knee’d Breeches of the same, the Breeches were made of the Skin of an old He-goat, whose Hair hung down such a Length on either Side, that like Pantaloons it reach’d to the middle of my Legs; Stockings and Shoes I had none, but had made me a Pair of some-things, I scarce know what to call them, like Buskins to flap over my Legs, and lace on either Side like Spatter-dashes; but of a most barbarous Shape, as indeed were all the rest of my Cloaths. (184) These are similes as the use of the word “like” shows the comparison between different things.

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Modern-Day Robinson Crusoe

Video. Castaway survives alone for 41 days.

Biology, Ecology, English Language Arts

Wild Chronicles follows a wildlife documentary filmmaker who has become a modern-day Robinson Crusoe when he sets up camp on a remote island off the coast of Mexico. During his 40 days as a lone castaway, some unexpected treasures turn up.

• The "real" Robinson Crusoe is the title character in the 1719 novel by Daniel Defoe .
• Lance, the modern-day castaway, survived alone on the island for 41 days. Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked for 28 years, although he had brief interactions with many people.
• Defoe was inspired to write Robinson Crusoe after hearing the story of Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was a sailor who was stranded alone on a remote island for four years.
• Lance survived on Clipperton Atoll, a posession of France located hundreds of miles west of Central America. The fictional Robinson Crusoe was stranded near the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Alexander Selkirk survived on the largest island in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, off the coast of Chile. The island is now called Robinson Crusoe Island.
• Robinson Crusoe was wildly successful, inspiring many sequels, translations, and spinoffs. It was the most popular novel written in English until the 20th century, and has never gone out of print.

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Robinson Crusoe's Timeline

Robinson crusoe's birth.

Set sail for the first time

Enslavement

Meeting with negroes.

Stranded on the island

Another disastrous voyage to Africa

Discovering Natives

Saving Friday

Attacking Natives

Leaving the island

Arriving in England

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel defoe, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, robinson crusoe quotes in robinson crusoe.

My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.

He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me... that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind.

The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsels of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house—which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands of my father—I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.

At this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas! this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in the sequel of this story.

For who would have supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we could not go on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind?

He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was loth to take; not that I was unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was very loth to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian; upon this, and Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let the captain have him.

In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself. But how just has it been—and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience—I say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an island of mere desolation, should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and rich.

I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: "O drug!" said I, aloud, "what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me—no, not the taking off the ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap; I have no manner of use for thee—e'en remain where thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worth saving." However, upon second thoughts I took it away.

I had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my life. The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made these reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself why Providence should thus completely ruin His creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable; so without help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.

Evil: I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable. Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship's crew, to be spared from death; and He that miraculously saved me from death can deliver me from this condition. Evil: I am divided from mankind—a solitaire; one banished from human society.

I had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my head, nor had entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God, without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these things, or His order in governing events for the world. But after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely, and I began to suggest that God had miraculously caused His grain to grow without help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that wild, miserable place.

"Now," said I, aloud, "my dear father's words are come to pass; God's justice has overtaken me, and I have none to help or hear me. I rejected the voice of Providence, which had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein I might have been happy and easy; but I would neither see it myself nor learn to know the blessing of it from my parents. ...Lord, be my help, for I am in great distress." This was the first prayer, if I may call it so, that I had made for many years.

Now I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing. I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it or think of it; it was all of no consideration in comparison to this. And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction.

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all my observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe ordered everything for the best; I say I quieted my mind with this, and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there.

I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary condition than I should have been in the liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world; that He could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of human society, by His presence and the communications of His grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon His providence here, and hope for His eternal presence hereafter.

I believe few people have thought much upon the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one article of bread. I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my daily discouragement. ...I had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing all the operations necessary for making the corn, when I had it, fit for my use.

In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, nor the pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor; or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had possession of.

It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. ...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 print of a foot - toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified 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.

How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as different circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose only affliction was that I seemed banished from human society, that I was alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what I call silent life; that I was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would have seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of salvation, could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow or silent appearance of a man having set his foot in the island.

And therefore it could not be just for me to fall upon them; that this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practiced in America, where they destroyed millions of these people; who, however they were idolators and barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the rooting them out of the country is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation by even the Spaniards themselves at this time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man.

But it occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done or intended me any wrong? who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous customs were their own disaster, being in them a token, indeed, of God's having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses, but did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of His justice - that whenever He thought fit He would take the cause into His own hands, and by national vengeance punish them as a people for national crimes, but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business.

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. First of all, the whole country was my own property, so that I had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly subjected - I was absolutely lord and lawgiver - they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion for it, for me. It was remarkable, too, I had but three subjects, and they were of three different religions - my man Friday was a Protestant, his father was a Pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a Papist. However, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions.

So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that He does not leave His creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.

The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

The adventures of Robinson Crusoe involve eight voyages in all. The first voyage, set in 1652, takes the adventurous twenty-year old Robinson from his home in York to Great Yarmouth, and then to London. The second voyage takes him on a trading voyage from London to Guinea on the west coast of Africa. The third voyage is similar in intent, but Robinson is captured by Moorish pirates and held as a slave in Sallee (Rabat). Escaping from the Moors in 1654, Crusoe and Xury head southwards along the African coast until they are picked up by a Portuguese trader who takes them to Brazil where Cruose is able to set up a plantation thanks to the money paid him by the honest Portguese for his boat and other goods. After four years, in 1659 Crusoe is persuaded by the plantation owners to lead a trading voyage back to Guinea to buy slaves, but two storms throw his boat off course and he is finally wrecked on his imaginary island south-east of Trinidad. There he spends 28 years until rescued by another trader who takes him back to England (his sixth voyage)in 1688. The seventh voyage, in 1689, takes Crusoe to Lisbon, with the aim of travelling back to Brazil to see to his plantation, but his old friend the Portuguese captain conducts all his transactions for him by mail, so Crusoe is able to cash in his considerable resources without crossing the Atlantic. He then returns to London. Finally, in 1694, Crusoe is encouraged to accompany a nephew on another trading voyage, this time to the East Indies. En route, they call in at his old island and the novel ends with a report of how well the Spaniards he left behind on "his island" have fared in the intervening years.

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A Map of the world, on wch is delineated the voyages of Robinson Cruso

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Lauren Robinson's unexpected journey to becoming a wheelchair basketball coach

Sport Lauren Robinson's unexpected journey to becoming a wheelchair basketball coach

In 2022, Lauren Robinson received a surprise invitation.

It was the chance of a lifetime to join the Australian Gliders, Australia's women's wheelchair basketball team, as team manager for their series against Japan at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

It was an opportunity that would be the catalyst to change her career direction from playing to coaching elite wheelchair basketball.

It happened when she ran into the head coach of the Gliders, Craig Campbell, at the airport when travelling to the AIS.

"The first thing that he said was, 'as you're floating around, if you want to jump on court, and start coaching, you're more than welcome to'," she said.

"In the back of my head, I was screaming a little bit because I've never coached wheelchair basketball before."

Wheelchair basketball journey

For Robinson, her basketball career had been an unexpected journey.

Unable to progress to higher levels of the game as an athlete, she continued developing her coaching experience to stay connected to the game.

Coaching junior domestic teams for seven years before moving into a head coaching role for junior championship basketball, the highest level of junior competition, Robinson's coaching skills developed and a few years later she joined a coaching team for Basketball Victoria.

But at only 24, she would never have thought she'd be able to coach athletes who skilfully play basketball in a chair.

Accepting the offer allowed Robinson time on the court with the athletes.

"I think people just get freaked out because of the chair and the specific chair skills; the concepts of the game are very similar, they just have to be tweaked to cater for it — you just adapt it to what their functional capabilities are," she said.

Robinson's time as team manager with the Gliders was a great learning opportunity.

Not only did it help her see the different coaching roles available to her, and provide the chance to connect with coach Craig Campbell, Robinson also quickly learned how much para-athletes navigate just to get on the court.

"I think being involved with the Gliders has opened my eyes up so much more to the possibilities within basketball, but also the limitations to accessibility for basketball within certain areas," she said.

"The amount of extra planning that has to go into place to make sure that hotels are accessible for athletes, or court space is available for people to put their chairs on the side, or travelling with athletes who have day chairs and sports chairs and how that impacts the timeline of getting from place A to B.

"It's a lot of the little things that you wouldn't see from the outside."

Passion for research

Alongside her coaching, Robinson studied for a Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science with Honours, her research focusing on the interpersonal development of coaches in wheelchair basketball.

Robinson's research led her to join the campaign for Basketball Victoria's Kevin Coombs Cup team, a state team for wheelchair athletes, to gain more experience from the coaching team.

The cup is named in honour of Australia's first Indigenous Paralympic wheelchair basketball athlete.

Robinson gained exposure to basketball relevant to her research at the tournament and it deepened her love of wheelchair hoops.

One year later, she joined the Gliders as assistant coach while also starting a PhD to continue her research.

"Wheelchair basketball just provides a completely different conceptual version of the game," she said.

"It's very cognitively stimulating for me, and it's making me think more as a coach to get the same results from my athletes, but also has made me a better coach through needing to have greater discussions with the athletes to ensure I'm appropriately catering for their needs.

"It's such an accepting culture and there's so much positivity from this group and want to succeed that it's infectious to be around."

Even with her depth of experience as a coach and academic researcher, Robinson still second-guesses herself, as she is often the younger one in the coaching group.

"The biggest challenge to me is just finding my voice in situations I'm not comfortable in and actually recognising that I can do it and backing myself in those situations," she said.

Robinson's multi-skilled experience has taught her how to manage the pressure and is grateful to contribute to the game she loves.

"I love being able to watch athletes' success on and off the court regardless of if that's a win or a skill development. Seeing growth within an individual that I am fortunate enough to be a part of their journey."

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