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By Alessia

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Time

The time of the narration is marked with a rigorous dating. In fact the dates are frequent and sometimes even significant. For example, September 1st is the date of his departure from his hometown and the next one from Brazil which leads him to the shipwreck. September 30th, the day of his birth, is also the one in which he lands shipwrecked on the island. Robinson himself spots this strange recurrence on the dates of important events in his life. There are summaries and ellipses. The digressions are infrequent, because the whole story is seen through the eyes of the protagonist, and rarely moves away from his ura. There are no valid time stamps with reference to the text. The protagonist keeps track of the days making notches on his hut that serve as a calendar.

Place

Even the dating of space is extremely detailed. Numerous English towns (Winterton Ness, Hull, Yarmouth), Guinea, Brazil and Morocco are mentioned. Some geographical locations are even reported.

It can also be considered a symbolic space, that is, the place in which man faces life with his bare hands, and can only survive by appealing to that instinct typical of the savage, which lies within each of us.

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In the play, The Tempest, and the novel, Robinson Crusoe, the islands serve as microcosms of British society. In The Tempest, the microscopic society of Prospero's island addresses the aspects of morality, the supernatural and politics in the larger, British society. Robinson Crusoe's island aids his personal physical and spiritual growth. It also reflects aspects of materialism, colonization and religion in the British society.

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What was the myth of the natural man in the 18th century? Who was its greatest exponent?
The myth of the natural man saw the universe as a living organism in which nature and man interacted. It follows that, nature being good, the closer man is to nature , the better he is.  The French-Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau was the main exponent of the theory of the good natural man.
What are Rousseau’s educational theories and how are they linked to Robinson Crusoe?
Rousseau advocates a return to nature and argues that society is artificial, so he states that only by stimulating the natural impulses and  interests of the child can we give him a true education. He considered the novel “Robinson Crusoe” essential to a child’s education.
How do modern readings of Robinson Crusoe differ from Rousseau’s?
Modern critics say that while Rousseau favoured a return to nature as the only way to be free from social restraints, in “Robinson Crusoe” Defoe conceived of nature only as a resource to be exploited economically: on the island Robinson does not feel closer to nature and leaves it as soon as he can.

-Francesco Silvestri

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Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") set sail from Kingston upon Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to pursue a career in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. Crusoe sells Xury to the captain. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation.
Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river on 30 September 1659.[5] He observes the latitude as 9 degrees and 22 minutes north. He sees penguins and seals on his island. As for his arrival there, only he and three animals, the captain's dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship, and some which he makes himself, he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society.
More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity.
After more natives arrive to partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port.
Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island. Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship and leave the worst mutineers on the island. Before embarking for England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men coming. Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687. He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England from Portugal to avoid travelling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, en route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the Pyrenees.

-Francesco Silvestri

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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Book Summary) - Minute Book Report

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Robinson Crusoe  | Themes | Daniel Defoe

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Starting from the essays by the English critic Ian Watt, Defoe has been seen several times as the father of the modern novel, or a form of prose novel in which the figure of a single character or a group of characters and their destiny is at the center of the story, and in which we try to respect certain criteria of consistency and verisimilitude. Although there are also important precedents (for example Don Chisciotte  by Cervantes and Madame de La Fayette's Princess of Clèves), Defoe was actually the first to use this literary form in a systematic way.

Defoe was above all a journalist and when he wrote his masterpiece, Robinson, he was already 58 years old. In addition, he published his novels in general, trying to pass them off as true stories (memorials and autobiographies).

The main reason why Defoe wrote was, apparently, the need to pay his debts.

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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. His 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 years isolation on a desert island.

Friday -  A twenty-six years old Caribbean native and cannibal who converts to Protestantism under Crusoe’s tutelage. Friday becomes Crusoe’s servant after he 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 years 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.

The Spaniard -  One of the men from the Spanish ship that is wrecked off Crusoe’s island, and whose crew is rescued by the cannibals and taken to a neighboring island. The Spaniard is doomed to be eaten as a ritual victim of the cannibals when Crusoe saves him. In exchange, he becomes a new “subject” in Crusoe’s “kingdom,” at least according to Crusoe. The Spaniard is never fleshed out much as a character in Crusoe’s narrative, an example of the odd impersonal attitude often notable in Crusoe.

Xury -  A non-white (Arab or black) slave boy only briefly introduced during the period of Crusoe’s enslavement in Sallee. When Crusoe escapes with two other slaves in a boat, he forces one to swim to shore but keeps Xury on board, showing a certain trust toward the boy. Xury never betrays that trust. Nevertheless, when the Portuguese captain eventually picks them up, Crusoe sells Xury to the captain. Xury’s sale shows us the racist double standards sometimes apparent in Crusoe’s behavior.

The Widow -  Appearing briefly, but on two separate occasions in the novel, the widow keeps Crusoe’s 200 pounds safe in England throughout all his thirty-five years of journeying. She returns it loyally to Crusoe upon his return to England and, like the Portuguese captain and Friday, reminds us of the goodwill and trustworthiness of which humans can be capable, whether European or not.

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While he is no flashy hero or grand epic adventurer, Robinson Crusoe displays character traits that have won him the approval of generations of readers. His perseverance in spending months making a canoe, and in practicing pottery making until he gets it right, is praiseworthy. Additionally, his resourcefulness in building a home, dairy, grape arbor, country house, and goat stable from practically nothing is clearly remarkable. Crusoe’s business instincts are just as considerable as his survival instincts: he manages to make a fortune in Brazil despite a twenty-eight-year absence and even leaves his island with a nice collection of gold. Moreover, Crusoe is never interested in portraying himself as a hero in his own narration. He does not boast of his courage in quelling the mutiny, and he is always ready to admit unheroic feelings of fear or panic, as when he finds the footprint on the beach. Crusoe prefers to depict himself as an ordinary sensible man, never as an exceptional hero.

But Crusoe’s admirable qualities must be weighed against the flaws in his character. Crusoe seems incapable of deep feelings, as shown by his cold account of leaving his family—he worries about the religious consequences of disobeying his father, but never displays any emotion about leaving. Though he is generous toward people, as when he gives gifts to his sisters and the captain, Crusoe reveals very little tender or sincere affection in his dealings with them. When Crusoe tells us that he has gotten married and that his wife has died all within the same sentence, his indifference to her seems almost cruel. Moreover, as an individual personality, Crusoe is rather dull. his precise and deadpan style of narration works well for recounting the process of canoe building, but it tends to drain the excitement from events that should be thrilling. Action-packed scenes like the conquest of the cannibals become quite humdrum when Crusoe narrates them, giving us a detailed inventory of the cannibals in list form, for example. His insistence on dating events makes sense to a point, but it ultimately ends up seeming obsessive and irrelevant when he tells us the date on which he grinds his tools but neglects to tell us the date of a very important event like meeting Friday. Perhaps his impulse to record facts carefully is not a survival skill, but an irritating sign of his neurosis.

Finally, while not boasting of heroism, Crusoe is nonetheless very interested in possessions, power, and prestige. When he first calls himself king of the island it seems jocund, but when he describes the Spaniard as his subject we must take his royal delusion seriously, since it seems he really does consider himself king. His teaching Friday to call him “Master,” even before teaching him the words for “yes” or “no,” seems obnoxious even under the racist standards of the day, as if Crusoe needs to hear the ego-boosting word spoken as soon as possible. Overall, Crusoe’s virtues tend to be private: his industry, resourcefulness, and solitary courage make him an exemplary individual. But his vices are social, and his urge to subjugate others is highly objectionable. In bringing both sides together into one complex character, Defoe gives us a fascinating glimpse into the successes, failures, and contradictions of modern man.

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It's a first-hand account, therefore  Robinson Crusoe is both the narrator and main character of the tale. Robinson Crusoe tells his own life, intervening with his comments and judgments, retrospectively from his personal point of view. This means we get to read every little detail that goes on his head. Sometimes the diary style is adopted.

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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND CAST AWAY: A COMPARISON

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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND CAST AWAY: A COMPARISON

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Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is the godfather of all the castaway adventures, like for example the 2000 movie Cast Away.

Both stories present similar plots and elements, even if they are told in different times with the

social, cultural and historical context playing a big roll in them.

Defoe’s novel tells the story of a midde class man Robinson Crusoe. In spite of his father’s

warning, he decides to leave his family at the age of nineteen and go to sea to make his own

fortune. After many adventures, he lands in Brazil where he esabilishes a plantation, but one day, while his travelling to Africa to buy some slaves for his business, he gets shiprecked on a desert island where he fights for his survival in many different ways for nearly three decades. After that long time he gets rescued by an English ship which brings him back to England where Robinson discovers that, due to his platation, he became rich.

On the other hand there is Chuck, the Cast Away movie’s hero. He is an executive of sorts for

FedEx and while he is celebrating Christmas with his family and friends he gets an important call from work which makes him board on a plane right away. While he is travelling the aircraft ends up in a severe storm that leads to a plane crush into the Ocean, where only Chuck escapes with a life raft. He finds himself on a desert island with a volleyball as his only companion, trying to survive for four years.  After that long period of time, Chuck is depressed and hopeless and decides to leave the island on a raft built by himself. He strugges to make it through the waves of the ocean, but he gets rescued by a ship passing by him and flies back to Memphis, his home town. There he understands that many things have changed throughout the years and that his girlfriend Kelly has moved on with her life because she thought Chuck was dead.

The two stories present a middle class hero with different values and beliefs.

In Defoe’s novel Robinson is a roll model of the 18th century enlighted society. He is a hard-

working and restless young man who acts with transgression and disobedience. He’s also a religious man and the shipwrecked is seen by him as a punishment from God for his bad behaviour towards his father. Crusoe seems incapable of deep feelings, as shown by his cold account of leaving his family. On the island he has to face cannibales, but at the end he’s got the primary needs in order to survive (goats, fruits, turtle’s eggs and companion animals).

Cast Away’s Chuck finds himself in a more realistic situation instead. Chuck seems pretty indifferent when he discovers that his girlfriend had moved on because of all he had learned on the island.. He’s got only coconuts and fish to survive on, but like Robinson, he’s a strong and orderly man and his being on a desert island simbolizes a punishment (for working on Christmas) which also represents what it’s like to be in the middle class today.