Robinson Crusoe Summary

Introduction

Daniel Dafoe's masterpiece fiction Robinson Crusoe was first published in 1719. This novel is about the adventures of an ambitious young man, Robinson Crusoe, who wants to explore the world and go to the sea. The life of Crusoe was adventurous yet wholesome because, at last, he came out alive from all the deadly experiences, still holding onto his faith in God. It was also recognized as a world book by a German critic as Dafoe had created a fearless hero, and the gruesome hurdles in his path attracted young readers.

Summary

Robinson Crusoe was a young lad who lived in seventeenth-century England. His father was a merchant of German origins. Robinson was a spontaneous wayfarer who didn't want to study law as his parents suggested. Despite his father's protests, he wanted to explore the sea and what lies beyond it. He tries to suppress his dreams and follow in his father's footsteps, but the longing for adventure and achievement is too intense to hold him back. He runs away from his home and boards a ship destined for London.

Before the ship could reach London, it drowned in a terrible storm. Robinson and his friend were rescued by using a boat, but this near-death experience shook his friend, and he refused to continue the journey. Although the ship's master tells him to return home, Crusoe is still hell-bent on going to London and making a fortune as a merchant. He sets out for Africa, and this voyage proves to be successful as he reaches London and earns good money through trading. Unfortunately, the captain of this ship dies, but Robinson joins the new captain of the same ship to continue the voyage, leaving his profits in the care of the former captain's widow. In the middle of the expedition, Crusoe's ship is taken over by the Moorish pirates, and in the town of Sallee, he is captured by the king. After being enslaved for two years, Crusoe and his companion, a younger boy named Xury, find a way to escape. They throw the Moor named Ismael overboard during a fishing trip and turn the boat south expecting to find a European vessel.

They get food and fuel from the African natives and, later, find a Portuguese ship that takes them to Brazil. The captain takes Xury under his wing, and Crusoe settles in Brazil as a sugar plantation owner. Soon, he comes to know about the voyage that is led by other plantation owners to Africa in order to buy slaves for their fields. Robinson joins the crew and leaves for another adventure. The vessel comes up against a wild rainstorm, but Crusoe encourages the captain to go on. Further along the voyage, another storm hits the vessel, and Crusoe finds himself on a remote land with his ship discarded not far from the coast.

Soon he realizes that he is the only one out of his crew left alive. He swims back and forth to the wrecked ship and gathers food, armaments, and other tools. On the island, he finds goats, uses them as food, and builds a hut with fences. He places a cross and carves the date on which he arrived on the island so that he does not lose track of time and also adds a mark on it every day. He starts making new tools and discoveries each day, such as the fabrication of candles and grain germination and records them in the journal that he brought with him.

One day, he casually threw some husks of grain and rice and barley grew out of them. This was a wondrous spectacle for him, and he believed God had shown mercy on him in these dire conditions. After spending about a year on the island, he fell seriously ill. In his feverish state, he visualized an angel who announced that he would die if he did not save himself. This incident led to the realization that he had completely lost the sense of illustrating his gratitude and faith toward God in the quest of living and relishing life. He regains his religious enlightenment by reading several copies of the Bible that he retrieved from the ship. After drinking the tobacco blended in rum, he recovers quickly, and this is comprehended as a sign that he has been liberated from his past sins. Finally, he accepts his fate and explores the island, where he finds a lush green forest containing trees with succulent fruits. He finds an ideal spot for building up a small shelter other than his previous one. Now with an optimistic outlook towards life, he starts domesticating animals and birds and learns many artistic activities like basket making and weaving.

For a year, he lived peacefully on the island, spending his time praying to God, harvesting various crops, and taking good care of his pets. As he had no contact with the outer world and no one to please, he started to appreciate his life which was devoid of any pride, guilt, sorrow, or ambition. He decides to make a canoe by cutting out a large tree trunk from a cedar tree, so he can go sailing around the outer edge of the island, as he cannot go into the deep waters without the applicable tools. However, a high tide washes him back to the shore, and he is thankful that God once again saved him.

One day, Crusoe finds footprints near the seashore and is terrified. He assumed the footprint might belong to the cannibals who were known to be living in the same region. Although he is agitated, he decides to patrol around the area to confirm his suspicions but is relieved after finding no one. A day later, he discovers human remains, which appear to be a cannibalistic gathering. Feeling nauseated and unsafe, he decides to help the victims by killing the savages when they come back to his island. Despite the carnage, he second-guesses his decision by contemplating that the savages have not harmed him in any way, so would it be right for him to jump into a situation he has nothing to do with? Finally, he decides to live a safe life and ignores the incident.

To protect his goats, he trains them and keeps them in his basement throughout the night. The next evening, gunshots are heard during a storm. Surveying the area the next day, he found a wreck on the beach of his island, with no surviving crew members. After encountering so many deaths on the island, Crusoe longs to go back to civilization. After some time, many victims who were captured by cannibals land on Crusoe's island and run towards his abode to save their lives. Crusoe saves a boy by killing the cannibals. Overcome with joy and gratitude, the boy takes an oath to serve Crusoe throughout his life. Crusoe accepts him as a servant and names him Friday, reminiscing the day he landed on the island.

Friday was a bright kid and eager to learn from his savior. He learns English from Crusoe, and the people living in a nearby region are cannibals. Through Friday, Crusoe learns about the lifestyle of cannibals and how they eat their enemies only. After being trapped for so long, Friday longs to meet his family but refuses to leave his master behind. Crusoe and Friday build up a canoe to visit the Spaniards' land. However, before they could depart, a large faction of cannibals with two captives arrived on the island. Crusoe and Friday kill all the cannibals and rescue both prisoners, one of whom is his father. Friday recognizes the other prisoner as a Spaniard. The Spaniard narrates his tale to the rest that his vessel was wrecked near Friday's Island, and his crewmembers are still stuck there. Crusoe welcomes the others on his island, and they spend a few days together harvesting crops. Later, Crusoe decides to send Friday's father and the Spaniard to bring other Spaniard sailors so they all could travel back home along with him.

Before the Spaniards could return with help, the English ship turned up on the island. Some sailors descend on the shore along with a few prisoners. After rescuing the prisoners, Crusoe comes to know that one of the prisoners is the captain of the vessel. The captain explains to Crusoe how the crewmen led a revolt against him and took over the ship. Now, these rebels were planning to leave him on the island- thinking of it as abandoned- to let him die. Friday, Crusoe, the captain, and other prisoners plan their next move to take the ship back. The first two shout at the rebels from different locations, confusing and soon scaring them. They overpower the mutineers and make the rest pledge their loyalty to the captain by scaring them into thinking that the land is imperial territory. Crusoe holds five men as captives so that his friends can go back and take control of the ship. At last, Crusoe leaves the island with Friday and others to go back to England after the hardships of 28 years on the island.

After living alone for such a long time, Crusoe feels foreign among his fellow species. Soon, he discovers that his only living relatives are his two sisters and two nephews. His friend, the Portuguese captain, took care of his plantation in Brazil, which has prospered graciously. The captain sends the profits earned through the trade to Crusoe in England, and after reacquiring his fortune, Crusoe gets wealthy instantly. Before his travel to England began, he rewarded the widow of the old Portuguese captain with a vast sum of money as she devotedly kept the money safe that he deposited to her years ago. He traveled to Paris by land with a group of wanderers and decided to take a boat from there to England. The travelers were being attacked by wolves on the path they were traveling on, and despite carrying guns, they were barely able to escape alive. After reaching France safely, the journey toward England wasn't strenuous. He settled in England with his two nephews, and one of them chose to be a sailor following in his uncle's footsteps.

After the death of his wife, Crusoe joined his nephew on a voyage to the East Indies. He also returned to his island to see that the Spaniards had now taken over it and formed a colony by chasing away the Caribbean natives. Later, he goes back to Brazil and lives a content life.

Significance

With the main theme of adventure, Defoe shows that the journey of a hero has to be arduous so that he can realize his true worth. The behavior displayed by Robinson, in the beginning, is that of a disobedient boy who has lived an easy life. But with his great ambition to explore the unknown by traveling along the tides, he grows into an experienced man and a survivor.

It teaches the young readers that going through challenges in life is important to grow as a person and reach your goal. Crusoe was a brave man and fought against fate to survive all the hurdles that the sea and his fate threw toward him. When he landed on the deserted island, he found the means to survive by harvesting crops, finding shelter, and building a canoe from the remaining tools he found in the wrecked ship. Despite the occasional mishappenings, he lived on the island comfortably enough to survive for the next twenty-eight years.

Although he was miserable by getting stuck on the island, he always helped those who came to him for protection. He was an honorable man as he helped the widow of his former captain by providing her with money and trusting her with his fortune. He helped Friday and the English captain not only because they could help him get home, but he knew that he couldn't leave them to die. He also knew that loyalty and companionship are the values that are important to sustain humanity. It would have been difficult to live as a sailor if his mannerisms and connections hadn't offered him some friends. He made a friend like the Portuguese captain who looked after his plantation and fortune for such a long time and offered back everything after his return. He helped the prisoner boy Xury to escape from the Moorish pirates, displaying the values of brotherhood. He also teaches Friday the ethics of Catholicism that help to keep dignity and hope alive in oneself.

The one theme that is worth highlighting is Crusoe finding his faith in God even after going through such dreadful experiences. He saw himself as the chosen one by God because he was the only surviving member of his crew. He found inspiration only in surviving and by believing in God he could keep the hope alive in his heart that he would come out of this situation alive.