It has been my observation that there are a great number of books which many persons convince themselves they know the nature of, but have never read. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a good example of this.

So many movies have been made which have taken some small part of the plot of the tale of Robinson Crusoe that the essential essence of the book itself has in fact been almost completely lost in the translation.

Set in the middle part of the seventeenth century, this book tells the first hand accounting of the life and times of Robinson Crusoe, a middle-class born man, whose father was a respected and comfortable businessman, and who hoped only for his son Robin to join the family business. Alas, being a headstrong lad, this wayward son could not be dissuaded from fleeing to the coast, and there joining the first ship that he could find to enjoy the life of a sailor. His father had beseeched him at length to reconsider this plan, as indeed had every person to whom he would lend an ear. They cautioned him that for a middleclass man to take on the working class and dangerous life of a freshman at sea was madness. Nonetheless he proceeded.

In the first part of the book Robinson Crusoe tells us the details of his voyages at sea. From the very first moment his journeys are dogged with misfortunes….endless storms, failures, piracies, and other calamities befall every voyage he takes. During the episodes themselves, Crusoe repents of the life that he has been leading and forever hears the words of warning which his father spoke to him. Unfortunately, a few weeks ashore, and a few drinks in his belly always took the fear away from him again, and off on his next adventure he would go.

Some years pass in this manner, and the poor man is exposed to being taken prisoner as a slave, amongst other insults to himself. In each case, by a combination of good fortune, bravery and ingenuity he escapes his circumstances. These escapes he views as nothing more than good chance. The final blow comes when Crusoe is shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, and due to the provisions of the ship being largely available to him, he is able to survive the marooning and live.

It is in this life of solitude that the real insight of the author begins to express itself. The novel has, until this time, been little more than a simple tale of adventure. Now the character of Crusoe, until previously little more than a vehicle through which to recant exciting tales of ship-board adventures, turns inward upon himself. The many years of his life in which he was repeatedly exposed to dangers from which he was then reprieved in circumstances he could not really have hoped for, begin to press upon him. He recalls that not once had he considered the possibility that a divine intervention had been occurring. This begins to haunt him. He recalls the words of his father, and slowly Robinson Crusoe becomes convinced that Providence has over and over again been attempting to provide him with a way out of his willful and sinful life to return to his father. Finally now, he is completely cast up. What does God judge for him now?

Crusoe goes endlessly backward and forward in his mind….half of the time he is convinced that his desolation on the island is the punishment of God for his ill deeds. The other half of the time he is convinced that providence has even now spared him from a terrible fate, that of being completely without tools, food or hope. A kind and benevolent God has provided him with the circumstances to survive his shipwreck, when all others were killed, and he was spared to learn the part God plays in every life.

These considerations come between the long periods of industry that Crusoe executes on the island. Over the course of the 28 years that he is stuck there, he learns many primitive skills to improve his standard of living. First the skills of shelter building and wall construction, cave excavation etc….then planting of grains, and harvest thereof, animal husbandry, bread making, pot making and firing etc etc.

Despite the antiquity of this book, these elements of the story have made it timeless. Even today, a person set alone in a wilderness with little more than a hatchet and a rifle would have to demonstrate the same levels of ingenuity and industry to make a life for themselves.

The author goes to great lengths in explaining through Crusoe’s account that these skills had to be hard earned, through trial and error. It takes Crusoe three years to construct a canoe by hollowing out of a great cedar, only to then discover he has built it too far inland and cannot possibly move it to the ocean. These setbacks, set in mind-bogglingly long periods of time and effort give the novel just the sense of temporal extension that is required for realism to be evoked in the mind of the reader. We take away a very strong sense of long, long isolation, and deep desperation, tempered by strong will and great effort. That is a lasting impression, and one familiar from all our own lives in some fashion or other.

Another factor in the timelessness of this book is the very quality of the inner life with which Defoe endows Crusoe. The quality and emotional content of his inner reflections are so common to all persons that one cannot help but associate strongly with the poor man. I also found myself more than once seeing a strong analogy between the Desert Island upon which Crusoe is cast and the socially desolate atmosphere of much of Western society today. It is not difficult to identify with a castaway if you have spent much time living in one of our large impersonal cities.

Crusoe eventually comes to terms with his new life. Indeed, his long reflection brings him to a philosophy of living akin to a kind of innate naturalism. He comes into equilibrium with his environment. Armed with guns, he nevertheless comes to favor husbandry of the wild goats. Soon he has a tame flock that he keeps for himself. He learns to plant and harvest corn and barley, and makes bread, but never plants more than he can use. He finds vines growing wild, and dries them to make raisins. All in all, Robinson Crusoe makes a life for himself. He is lord of the animals on his island, none of which are dangerous….he keeps a parrot as a companion, and for some time the ships dog. He frequently makes observations concerning his former life, and how unnatural it was. Through this massive re-ordering of Crusoe’s life, Daniel Defoe passes his comments on his view of the natural man.

This even-handed and naturalistic angle on living is carried further when Robinson Crusoe begins to discover the cannibalistic Indians that use the island. From time to time the Indians come there to celebrate bacchanalian rites. Crusoe first thinks to kill them all, but his reflections turn to the point where he takes (at least until he has a chance to save lives through his actions) a more open-minded view. Who is he, he asks, to judge their actions and do violence to them for their different way of life. This, he reflects, would make him no better than the Europeans who had (at this point in time fairly recently) performed a genocide on the South American races and their culture. Throughout the book this excellent balance of viewpoints from the author is evidenced, and very pleasant it is to read. I always enjoy so much discovering that people so long ago had such open minds and could see better ways to live as well as anyone today. When one thinks back to such times, with slavery rife, torture institutionalized and public health unheard of it is easy to lump everyone in the same bag intellectually. At least I am guilty of acting that ignorantly. Books like this help me break out of that limited and grossly inaccurate view.

There are portions of this book which I enjoyed less than the rest, most notably the portion at the end of the book which relates the life of Crusoe after he left the island. This part of the book, with his further adventures in the mountains of Europe is little more than a pulp fiction, and the carefully crafted inner lives of the characters is completely absent. Indeed, there is an element of this pulp fiction style throughout the entire novel, but it is better tempered with weightier considerations elsewhere.

All in all this is a fascinating analysis of the inner life of man. There is much to be found of oneself in the angst and trials of Robinson Crusoe, I hope you can find time to enjoy it.


Recommended: Yes