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Robinson Crusoe
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Robinson Crusoe (beg.) by Daniel Defoe - Group Read (hosted by Erich)
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Connie
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Jul 12, 2025 07:12AM
The illustrations are wonderful, Erich. Many of them have RC interacting with his dog, the parrot, or the pet goat. Even if he did not have human companionship, it probably was a comfort to have the animals and the parrot in his life.
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Connie wrote: "The illustrations are wonderful, Erich. Many of them have RC interacting with his dog, the parrot, or the pet goat. Even if he did not have human companionship, it probably was a comfort to have th..."I really like the art by Wal Paget.
Walter Paget was an English illustrator who lived from 1862 to 1935. He was originally chosen to illustrate Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories for The Strand Magazine, but through a misunderstanding the commission was given to his brother, Sidney. Sidney is said to have used his brother as the model for his illustrations. What do you think?
Walter Paget
Sherlock Holmes
Source
Walter Paget: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_...
Was anyone else struck by the Edenic description of the vale where RC builds his "Bower"?At the end of this March I came to an Opening, where the Country seem'd to descend to the West, and a little Spring of fresh Water which issued out of the Side of the Hill by me, run the other Way, that is due East; and the Country appear'd so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant Verdure, or Flourish of Spring, that it looked like a planted Garden.Crusoe realizes that he is the master of the island, just as Adam was made master of the earth. In Genesis 1:
I descended a little on the Side of that delicious Vale, surveying it with a secret Kind of Pleasure, (tho' mixt with my other afflicting Thoughts) to think that this was all my own, that I was King and Lord of all this Country indefeasibly, and had a Right of Possession; and if I could convey it, I might have it in Inheritance, as compleatly as any Lord of a Mannor in England.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”In Genesis 2:
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.Adam's first task is to name the creatures of the earth; Crusoe has catalogued all of the plants and animals that he has encountered during his stay on the island, and he catches a parrot to teach it to speak.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
[...]
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Back in Chapter 3, when Crusoe was a slave (rather than "King and Lord"), he also spent time in a garden: when his master went to sea "he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his house."
This is our official break day, so I hope to hear more from other readers about your impressions so far!
Erich, there's a remarkable resemblance between Wal Paget and his brother's illustration of Sherlock Holmes. Interesting find!I was also struck with the Edenic description of the island. I even checked that I was reading the correct pages because I wondered if I had already read it! Then I recognized the similarities to the Bible. RC is becoming more content and accepting of his circumstances since he made a religious connection.
I also noticed the Edenic description. It made sense to me that it was introduced at this point because Robinson had just found his awakening in God. Eden is a good starting point from this belief. It'll be interesting to see if there's an Edenic "apple" coming Robinson's way or whether he continues to live in an Edenic world. I was a little behind in my reading, so couldn't comment.
I'm enjoying Robinson's exploration of the island and his findings. The island is giving him all that he needs, it seems.......a little bit like God providing for man and giving mankind all the things that they need to make a good life. However, what mankind makes out of these God-given gifts is up to Man. We'll have to see how Robinson uses the gifts he finds on the island (although I can't see him doing harm with anything. He's just trying to survive.)
I have been off the grid for a week, so today I will try to catch up with the summaries ad comments. I think I actually have read through the middle of Chap 11 in the book. I do remember at one point when he went out to hunt with his gun and dog. I stopped abruptly and thought dog ???! I missed that he had picked up a dog? But as I knew I was trying to not get too far behind, I didn't go back and reread to see where I missed it. Maybe when I go through the summaries today. I have been enjoying the story, Crusoe's ingenuity and perseverance as well as his time of reflections on his life and his relationship with God.
OK, after reading the summaries, I can answer my question about the dog and cats as well. Chap 8. He brings them back. I do wonder how they survived the shipwreck and then the days without food and water. No matter. I like, along with the other animals he collects as pets that he has some companionship. I talk to my pets all the time!!Oh yes, how could the discovery of the vale not hark back to the descriptions of Eden in its beauty and abundance.
And I loved all the illustrations as well. Visuals are always helpful to me in putting flesh on the words.
Connie: "RC is becoming more content and accepting of his circumstances since he made a religious connection."It is definitely a shift for him to see the island not as a prison but as a place of beauty and freedom. However, the shift also introduces a sort of problem for Defoe's didactic purposes, as the quotation from Leopold Damrosch, Jr. in message 148 points out that "Defoe sets out to dramatize the conversion of the Puritan self, and he ends by celebrating a solitude that exalts autonomy instead of submission." I'm not sure if I agree that RC lacks submission in a religious sense since he has strengthened his connection to God at that same time as he has become more autonomous, but RC does call himself "King and Lord" of the island.
This brings up another issue that we have touched on before: imperialism. As Sam wrote, "I think it important to notice that the character Crusoe is paralleling what is happening in the history of imperialism and especially British imperialism and also paralleling the Protestant breaking away and domination of the places to which they fled. That parallel is important especially when we layer it against the hero's journey theme." RC's attitude toward the island is one of dominion, and when he calls himself "King and Lord" it is also telling that he follows with "if I could convey it, I might have it in Inheritance, as compleatly as any Lord of a Mannor in England." He has moved from a situation of survival to making a legal claim to ownership of the island with power to pass it on to his descendants!
Petra: "It'll be interesting to see if there's an Edenic 'apple' coming Robinson's way or whether he continues to live in an Edenic world."That is a great point. Other elements of the Bible story that we can watch for would be the creation of Eve as Adam's helpmate and temptation by the serpent.
It may be that RC's pride and covetousness at this point will be punished later in the story. In his earlier disasters, those sins also came into play.
Interestingly, when I searched online for information about parallels between Crusoe and Adam, one source compared RC leaving his home and family to an expulsion from Eden. I think Defoe's own comparisons to the Prodigal Son or to Jonah are more apt.
Chris: "I have been enjoying the story, Crusoe's ingenuity and perseverance as well as his time of reflections on his life and his relationship with God."Welcome (?) back to the grid!
Crusoe is a very resourceful person, and Defoe very clearly wants to promote moral lessons through his character. Earlier, he lamented that he hadn't learned as many skills as a sailor as he could have, and in this section he manages to make baskets because as a boy he had watched and even helped a local artisan basket-weaver.
During the course of the story, RC has also become a more logical rather than emotional thinker. Whereas his early adventures were a result of his "wandring" spirit and the people he happened to meet, he now is deliberate and careful about his decisions. While he could abandon his coastal settlement for the more pleasant vale, he realizes that he would be missing a chance to be rescued and that he is well-protected near the coast.
In addition, he has learned greater discipline. He must ration his food carefully, he observes the sabbath, and he is constantly at work devising tools and objects that will help him survive.
Summary of (Chapter 12)
On the way back from his exploration, Robinson’s dog caught a young goat, and Robinson leashed it and led it back to his “Bower,” where he enclosed it for the time being. He had thought for some time about raising a herd of domesticated goats that he could rely on once his ammunition and powder were completely gone, and so this was a first opportunity.
He returned impatiently to his coast house after an absence of more than a month. He felt so much more comfortable at “home” than when he was exploring the island that he “resolv’d I would never go a great Way from it again, while it should be my Lot to stay on the Island.
He spent a week at home, during which time he constructed a cage for his parrot, who had become “a meer Domestick.” Following this period, he went to retrieve the kid from his country house and bring it back with him. The young goat was so starved that it became tame very quickly and followed Robinson everywhere.
The second anniversary of Robinson’s arrival on the island arrived, and he observed the day as before, “in humble and thankful Acknowledgments of the many wonderful Mercies which my Solitary Condition was attended with, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty Thanks that God had been pleas’d to discover to me, even that it was possible I might be more happy in this Solitary Condition, than I should have been in a Liberty of Society, and in all the Pleasures of the World.”
As Robinson reflected on his past, he realized what a “wicked, cursed, abominable Life” he had led. He understood how his existence on the island, which was limiting in so many ways, had also enabled him to experience new “Delights.” Where before he had thought of himself as “a Prisoner, lock’d up with the Eternal Bars and Bolts of the Ocean, in an uninhabited Wilderness, without Redemption,” his daily Bible reading had taught him that “if God does not forsake me, of what ill Consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the World should all forsake me.” Although he couldn’t be actually thankful for being on the island, he did feel grateful to God for “opening my Eyes” and for prompting his friend in England to pack a Bible on the ship.
Robinson filled his days with reading the Bible three times a day, hunting for three hours, processing food, and completing other tasks. The middle part of the day was too hot for any type of activity, but he was occupied at all other times of the day, especially because he lacked the tools, equipment, and skills that would have made these jobs easier.
Most tasks took far longer to complete than they would have if Robinson had had proper tools. For example, to make a board for a shelf, he spent 42 days felling and chiseling an entire tree to the correct flatness and thickness. As a result of this type of difficulty, he developed a great capacity for patience.
Robinson’s barley and rice crop began to grow, and he looked forward to a good harvest of grain. However, he had to defend his crop from goats and hares, which nibbled the young plants before they could produce grain. To do so, he created a fence around his field, killed some of the animals, and set his dog to guard the field at night. Later, as the grain began to mature, flocks of birds descended on the field to devour it. Robinson killed three of them and hung them up in the field, and fortunately his “Scare-Crows” made the birds abandon that area of the island. Finally, he was able to harvest a significant amount of rice and barley.
Robinson intended eventually to make bread from his grain, but he lacked almost all of the tools and skills that he would need to prepare and cook it. He also wanted to increase his stock of grain before he attempted to make bread, so he prepared and fenced two more fields.
When it rained and Robinson was not able to venture out, he worked on other tasks. First, he taught his parrot to speak its name (Poll), and that was the first word Robinson had heard on the island not spoken by himself. He also managed to make two large sun-baked earthen vessels for holding his grain, although he failed many more times than he succeeded. Along with the larger containers, he made several smaller objects such as plates and small pots.
Although he was successful in making containers for dry materials like grain, he couldn’t use any of the containers for holding liquids. By chance, he discovered that if he baked clay objects in a fire, they would harden and be serviceable. After he had hardened his pots, he boiled goat meat in water to make a broth, to his great satisfaction.
To make bread, Robinson needed to grind his grain, so he improvised a mortar and pestle using a piece of wood hollowed out and hardened with fire for the mortar and a piece of ironwood for the pestle. Then he created sieves out of muslin to sift the pounded grain. He had no way to obtain baker’s yeast, so he did without it. To solve the lack of an oven, he fashioned a primitive Dutch oven with hardened clay.
Although it took the better part of a year to complete all the preparations for baking, the narrator writes that Robinson eventually learned to bake not only bread but cakes made of rice and rice puddings. In time, his stock of grain increased to the point where he could use it freely, and he calculated the amount that he needed to sow each year to be constantly supplied with bread.
Joshua 1In a moment of despair, Robinson opens his Bible randomly to the verse, "I will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee." These words are from Joshua 1:5. Here are the first six lines of that book (in the New International Version):
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
from Jun 29, Message 73Erich C wrote: "Sam wrote: "He is mixing the perspective so that you have at time the young Crusoe relating events as they happened in time and the mature Crusoe commenting in spots on the young Crusoe's behavior...." AND "This is truly a rich and layered text!"
Your notes here Erich are worth remembering. I'm only now jumping into the discussion, and it struck me that your comments in Message 73 cover the major points of the novel - at-least the most striking ones. Thank you!
Of course, this is why Paget's name sounded so familiar! How interesting about Sidney and Walter being the prototype for Holmes, thank you, Erich!I absolutely agree about the colonial outlook: the island feeds him, but Robinson doesn't consider himself a guest, he feels he's the proprietor.
I still don't quite understand what he means by his 'sins', 'wicked life' etc. Obviously, his newfound piety does not extend to animals, so I doubt he has reconsidered his views on slavery. What he did in Brazil was in a way similar to what his father recommended, so I gather he doesn't mean that. He had friends who asked him to do a business project with them, hence this journey; for us, it's morally reprehensible because of the slave trade, but if slavery is OK for him, then there was probably nothing wrong with the journey. Any thoughts on that?
His resourcefulness is inspiring!
I've never actually tried it myself, but I remember during Covid when people could buy no yeast, they were just leaving flour and water to ferment for several days; does it only work with wheat flour? Sorry if this is a stupid question.
Robinson's resourcefulness is very inspiring.
Lee! Hi there :)
Lee: "I'm only now jumping into the discussion."I'm glad to see your comment, Lee!
Plateresca: "I still don't quite understand what he means by his 'sins', 'wicked life' etc."As usual, Plateresca, you have made some great observations. Yes, most of us would probably agree that his biggest sins (from our modern perspective) are enslaving other people, cruelty to animals, and an imperial outlook on the "other." You're right that these must not be the actions that he considers sins.
My take is that RC's sins have to do with rejecting his father's guidance and his previous neglect of the Bible and Protestant Christianity. On one level, this is a conversion story, so it reminds me of people nowadays who are "born again" (a spiritual rebirth), who may not actually have committed grievous sins in the past but who feel that they have progressed from sinfulness to forgiveness. The explanation of being born again from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association:
To be born again is to have the Holy Spirit transform our hearts from indifference and hostility toward God to a love of God and a desire for righteousness and holiness. The only way one can come to God and experience what it means to be “born again” is through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ.There is also the Christian concept of original sin/guilt that is an important part of that belief system. To subjugate oneself to God means recognizing that He is perfect and that the believer is not.
I've never actually tried it myself, but I remember during Covid when people could buy no yeast, they were just leaving flour and water to ferment for several days; does it only work with wheat flour?
That was the same thought I had! I have been maintaining a sourdough culture for several years, and although I started it with baker's yeast, it is possible to "capture" wild yeast from the air by leaving the flour and water out for a few days. Wild yeast isn't as active as commercial yeast, but it is definitely possible to make bread with it. It is also the original source of commercial yeast, of course.
This was a longer chapter than usual, so tomorrow will be a day for more comments and catching up. We will move on to the next section on Wednesday.
Erich, thank you for the explanation! I suspected something of the kind, but you made it quite clear. You've maintained a sourdough culture for several years! Wow! Well, you're probably less impressed by Robinson than some of us here :)
After the previous chapters which had a day by day telling of what Crusoe was doing I was taken by the leap in time this chapter covered(to the 2yr mark of his castaway status). I thought that lent more realism to how long all these tasks took with the crude or limited instruments and resources he had to use.I think the book The Martian was modeled on Robinson Crusoe in regards to using what he had and problem-solving to ensure his survival.
Plateresca: "You've maintained a sourdough culture for several years! Wow! Well, you're probably less impressed by Robinson than some of us here :)"Haha! It's really not all that difficult. The main thing is to feed it every week, which means using some of it to make bread or pancakes and then topping it up with flour and water. I have no difficulty making bread or pancakes every week!
Like Robinson, I use a Dutch oven to make my loaves. It works magnificently.
While there must have been an abundance of yeast in the air on RC's island, the constant heat would have meant at least daily feeding, which he wouldn't have been able to do with his limited stock of flour. However, if he had left a flour and water slurry outside for a few hours before adding additional flour to make a dough, he likely would be able to capture some wild yeast to make a "sponge"!
Chris: "After the previous chapters which had a day by day telling of what Crusoe was doing I was taken by the leap in time this chapter covered(to the 2yr mark of his castaway status). I thought that lent more realism to how long all these tasks took with the crude or limited instruments and resources he had to use."I agree, and in my opinion Defoe gives us the right amount of daily journal entries to avoid making it tedious. RC-narrator also does some jumping forward in time as he explains the success or failure of his various experiments.
Reading this book has helped me appreciate the time-saving conveniences in my life. I also try to emulate RC in some ways (out in the garden, mainly) by taking a longer view of things and using what I already have to solve problems rather than simply purchasing an easy solution.
"I think the book The Martian was modeled on Robinson Crusoe in regards to using what he had and problem-solving to ensure his survival."
I have not read that book but have seen the movie. You are correct that it owes a lot to RC. As you point out, being on Mars is pretty much like being on Robinson's island since there is no help to solve life-and-death problems.
More about Robinson Crusoe's InfluenceAs Chris noticed, the influence of Robinson Crusoe is everywhere in literature, and the character/situation is so iconic that I'm sure many authors use motifs from the book without even being aware of it!
First of all, there is the influence of the work as the advent of realistic fiction in general that we have already discussed. More specifically, the "castaway" genre became popular after the publication of RC. There have also been more direct reactions to the text:
*Gulliver’s Travels was published seven years after RC and can be read as a rebuttal to the optimistic stance that Defoe takes toward human capability.Source
*In Treasure Island, Ben Gunn - a friendly castaway who was marooned for many years, dresses in goat skin, and constantly talks about providence - is a parody of Crusoe.
*Jean-Jacques Rousseau has his title character in Emile, or On Education read RC to learn self-reliance and problem-solving based on necessity.
*In The Moonstone, Gabriel Betteredge uses the book as a source of divination, as Lori informed us earlier.
*Lord of the Flies features boys stranded on an uninhabited island who descend into savagery.
*J.M.G. Le Clézio's first novel, Le Procès-Verbal (published in English as The Interrogation) includes a main character who suffers long periods of loneliness. The epigraph for the book is a quote from RC: "Poll, as if he had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to me."
*In 1967, Michel Tournier published Les limbes du Pacifique (The Other Island), a retelling of the Crusoe story.
*In Foe, J.M. Coetzee tells the story of RC from the perspective of a woman named Susan Barton.
*J.G. Ballard has used the paradigm of RC in many of his works, such as Concrete Island. He also coined the term "inverted Crusoeism" to describe scenarios in which, rather than being cast away against their will, characters choose to maroon themselves as a way to discover a more meaningful existence.
Robinson Crusoe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinso...#
Summary of (Chapter 13)
Robinson often thought about the land he had seen from the other side of the island and wished that he could go there, hoping that it was inhabited and that he could manage to be rescued. He didn’t consider, however, that there could be “Savages” there, cannibals who would be “far worse than the Lions and Tigers of Africa.” He longed for “my Boy Xury” and the ship he had taken from his pirate master, but he knew that his longing was in vain.
It occurred to Robinson that he might repair the boat in which he and the crew had escaped the ship and then use it to leave the island and go to the mainland. It had been turned by the waves and wind until it lay wedged in the gravelly sand nearly bottom upward, completely immovable. Even so, he resolved to right the boat and repair it, and he spent almost a month fruitlessly attempting to do it. He managed to turn it rightside up by digging out the sand beneath it and rolling it, but then it was impossible for him to lift it out of the hole he had made. This only increased his desire to leave.
Abandoning the ship’s boat, he decided to make a dugout canoe out of a tree, as native people did, by carving and hollowing out a tree. It occurred to Robinson that he wouldn’t be able to move his canoe from the forest to the water, but “the Eagerness of my Fancy prevail’d” so that he pushed that thought aside and resolved to “first make it, I’ll warrant I’ll find some Way or other to get it along, when ‘tis done.”
He spent twenty days chopping down an enormous cedar tree with his meager tools, and then it took him an additional two weeks cutting off the limbs and topping it. He worked for a month with a hammer and chisel to shape the outside of the boat, and then he spent three more months carving out the inside. In the end, he had created the largest canoe he had ever seen, “big enough to have carried six and twenty Men, and consequently big enough to have carry’d me and all my Cargo.”
However, after all the labor that it had taken to create the canoe, it was impossible to move it the one hundred yards from the forest to the water, even though he tried various contrivances to get it there. First, because the canoe was downhill from the creek, he dug away the hill until he created a declivity. That accomplished, though, he was completely unable to budge the canoe. He then considered digging a canal to bring water to the canoe and float it to the creek, but he realized that it would take upwards of a dozen years and require that he dig twenty feet deep at the highest point. Finally defeated, he gave up the project. The narrator comments that “now I saw, tho’ too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost; and before we judge rightly of our own Strength to go through with it.”
While he was building his canoe, Robinson marked the fourth anniversary of his arrival on the island. He observed the day as before, with prayer and reflection. During his time on the island and due to his study of the Bible, Robinson had “gain’d a different Knowledge from what I had before.” He had come to a point of acceptance, and in fact he “look’d now upon the World as a Thing remote” with which he had no personal connection. On the island, he was “remov’d from all the Wickedness of the World” and had escaped lust, covetousness, and pride. He also had no one with whom he must compete but “was Lord of the whole Manor; or if I pleas’d, I might call myself King, or Emperor over the whole Country which I had Possession of.” He also “had no room for Desire,” and he learned “That all the good Things of this World, are no farther good to us, than they are for our Use.” Because he was thankful for what he had, he was content.
Robinson realized that “the good Providence of God” had allowed him to survive and even thrive on the island. Had he not been able to get any supplies from the ship, if he did manage to live he would have had to eat goat flesh raw, “gnaw it with my Teeth, and pull it with my Claws like a Beast.” The narrator comments that those who face struggles should consider “How much worse the Cases of some People are, and their Case might have been, if Providence had thought fit.”
He also recognized that not only had God provided for him in his extreme want, but He had given Robinson these gifts regardless of his sinful past. The narrator reflects that “I had liv’d a dreadful Life, perfectly destitute of the Knowledge and Fear of God” in spite of his parents’ efforts to instruct him, and he also remembers that he had allowed his sense of religion to be “laugh’d out of me by my Mess-Mates” on the ocean. Before he landed on the island, Robinson had never once thanked God for his earlier deliverances and successes; now, he was even thankful for his condition and recognized the “long Series of Miracles” that had enabled him to survive.
Over time, many of Robinson’s supplies had dwindled. His ink was nearly spent, so he only used it to record the most remarkable events. The ship’s biscuits he had recovered from the wreck were completely gone. The clothes that were most useful on the tropical island had decayed so as to be practically useless. Although he was alone and “the Weather was so violent hot, that there was no need of Cloaths,” clothing kept him cooler, and he also “could not abide the thoughts of [going naked], tho’ I was all alone.
To extend his stores, Robinson (unskillfully) sewed scraps of coats and other items together to create more usable clothing. He also used goat skins to create, first, a hat to protect him from the sun and, later, a full suit of clothes. Finally, he managed to construct a primitive but functional umbrella out of goat skins to keep off both rain and sun.
In the end, Robinson found that conversing with himself and God was “better than the utmost Enjoyment of humane society in the World.”
The first part of this chapter dwells on the dreams RC had to escape the island, but then the second part focuses on acceptance and the benefits of solitude. It may be that in the compression of time Defoe is describing two different stages in RC's thinking, but the fourth anniversary happens while he is working on the canoe. To me this seems discordant.This chapter also shows Robinson, whom we've been complimenting for his practicality and problem-solving, wasting months and months on a task that was doomed to fail. And even if he had managed to get the canoe into the water, "I make no question but I should have began the maddest Voyage, and the most unlikely to be perform'd, that ever was undertaken."
Make Your Own Dugout Canoe!In case anyone is interested in making a dugout canoe of their own, here is an Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Dugout-...
Please finish your canoe by the end of the read, and make sure to post pictures for us ;-)
I found the canoe to be very large. At one point, Robinson said it would fit 26 men! How can a single man propel such a large craft? The man has determination and resolve. He sets his mind to something and sees it through. That's quite different than the Robinson at the start of the book, who seemed at odds with Life and never settled to anything. Goes to show, perhaps, that Need brings out a focus that Ease doesn't.
I also wondered where he got the thread to sew the leather pieces together. Perhaps I missed how he made the thread? Or perhaps he had some in his stock from the ship?
Robinson continues to be a resourceful man. The mistake of the canoe does seem to be something he might have foreseen. However, we all make mistakes at times that seem obvious afterwards. He's human.
Erich, I'd love to know more about how you emulate Crusoe in the garden! Where I live, people do weeding and cutting with tools that produce a lot of noise and work on gasoline, which seems eco-unfriendly to me. On the other hand, my own weeding with a simple manual tool, though silent and respectful of the ecosystem, is excruciating and takes ages.
But one obvious Crusoe lesson is, time and energy bring about amazing results!
I very much enjoyed your analysis of the Crusoe influence!
The story of the canoe impressed me with Robinson's perseverance. To try to dig up a canal!
Re: Robinson's freedom from sins. I don't mean to be disrespectful and/or make fun of his faith, I'm just curious how it was in Robinson's time: if you didn't sin just because you couldn't, was it considered the same as if you didn't sin because you tried to be a better person? What I'm thinking is, well, he has money and there's nothing to spend it on, but is it really something to be proud of, would another religious person in his time appreciate this as a good act, or are we to understand that he's being kind of sinfully proud while thinking that he's really pious?
I wonder he hasn't tried making ink out of plants, or maybe molluscs; maybe he thought they would fade?
And I'm surprised he hasn't mentioned insects so far, even when talking about clothes. They do not harm his plants, do not give him inflammatory bites, do not disrupt his sleep, do not infest his supplies, could this really be possible?
Ha, I won't repeat Robinson's mistake and will make the canoe if and when I know how to apply it here in the mountains :)
Petra: "The man has determination and resolve. He sets his mind to something and sees it through. That's quite different than the Robinson at the start of the book, who seemed at odds with Life and never settled to anything. Goes to show, perhaps, that Need brings out a focus that Ease doesn't."I hadn't thought about that, but you are right! In the beginning pages, not only does RC refuse to follow his father's advice, but his reasons for going to sea are not really clear to him either. He writes that his father "ask'd me what Reasons more than a meer wandring Inclination I had for leaving my Father's House and my native Country," but we don't get an answer. All we know is that he was "fill'd very early with rambling Thoughts" and that he was "so entirely bent upon seeing the World, that I should never settle to any thing with Resolution enough to go through with it."
His first voyage is taken on a whim when his friend suggests he come along on his father's ship. After enduring a storm and a shipwreck, he was "uncertain what Measures to take, and what Course of Life to lead." Then he took a voyage to Africa as a paying gentleman, during which "I neither had any Business in the Ship, or learn'd to do any." That voyage was the result of happening to meet the captain, who encouraged him to accompany him as an unpaying companion and who helped him trade successfully. When he escapes from the pirates, he sets up a plantation in Brazil because that's where his rescue ship is headed, and when he takes the final voyage that leads to his marooning he is prompted to it by his acquaintances who want to import slaves without paying duties.
Not only was the early Robinson unsettled, but he was strongly influenced and could be manipulated by the people around him. I wonder if that has changed as well.
Plateresca: "Erich, I'd love to know more about how you emulate Crusoe in the garden!"Like you, I do just about everything out there by hand. Also, where I live is infested with deer, so everything in the front of the house has to be protected from them because they eat everything (they don't know how to read, so they eat even what the internet says they don't like). I've come up with various ways to fence things in so that they can't get at them. I also repurposed a play structure in our backyard to make a chicken coop, things like that.
The questions you are pondering are important. Along with the extreme heat, RC must have been just eaten up by mosquitoes! We know that at one point he is ill with what seems to be malaria, but you're right that he tends to focus on the animals and plants that are most useful to him; again that anthropocentrism shines through.
Are we to understand that he's being kind of sinfully proud while thinking that he's really pious?
This is a question we should probably keep in mind going forward. RC points out that one reason that he has found contentment is that he had no one with whom to compete and "was remov'd from all the Wickedness of the World." It is easy not to sin when there is no temptation, so has he actually changed? And is there a paradox in the stance of being Lord, King, and Emperor of the island and an attitude of submission to God's will?
I found the fact that the value of things like food are now defined according to his usage of it. He realizes that having more than he needs is wasteful where in society having more food or money was considered more valuable. He’s got a case of coins that are now completely worthless on this island because they are of no use to him now. It really makes one think about how we throw away things that spoil or give away what we outgrow - the value we give things is much different if one has been left with nothing and must create or use ingenuity to make necessary items for living. I did find the umbrella quite funny. Only a British gentleman stranded on an island would think he needed an umbrella!
Lori: "I found the fact that the value of things like food are now defined according to his usage of it. He realizes that having more than he needs is wasteful where in society having more food or money was considered more valuable."The word "society" in your comment seems to be the key, Lori. The value that RC places in objects on the island is based on his personal need, but we've seen earlier that even on his plantation in Brazil, with his nearest neighbor miles away, he was keen to accumulate wealth even to the point of enslaving people. So, does that mean that nothing has absolute value? Can value exist outside of either a social or subjectively personal relationship?
I did find the umbrella quite funny. Only a British gentleman stranded on an island would think he needed an umbrella!
This was the type of thing that Robert Louis Stevenson parodied with his character Ben Gunn. It is a ridiculous picture: a man walking through the forest wearing goatskin clothes and a goatskin hat and carrying a goatskin umbrella!
It is a puzzle though: How could one go about constructing such an object with materials like tree branches and goat skins? There is so much that we (and people in Defoe's time) take for granted.
I agree, it seems very unlikely that he could have made that umbrella. It has been way too many years since I’ve read Treasure Island so now I must revisit that again. Thanks for the reminder of the literature that has been influenced by RC.The question of value is definitely complicated. I think there can also be a moral value as well as a monetary or necessity value. I’m not sure necessity is the right word. But that would connote a more personal value. It can also depend upon a situation one is placed into. Say I was trapped inside a closet without a key. I would most like.y look around trying to find something valuable that could help me get out. But things like clothing are not going to be valuable in this situation. RC’s ideas of what is valuable and not valuable are certainly based on how much he needs them.
Great questions Erich!
Until today, I hadn't had a chance to read through the comments so far on this thread, but I'm glad I finally got around to doing so! I really appreciate Erich's excellent summaries and background notes (and the classic illustrations he's shared), and am benefitting from the insights and questions he and others have expressed. As I noted above, I've read RC before; but the intelligent comments of other readers always deepen my understanding and appreciation of any book, and this is no exception.Lori wrote: "I did find the umbrella quite funny. Only a British gentleman stranded on an island would think he needed an umbrella!"
Erich wrote: "It is a ridiculous picture: a man walking through the forest wearing goatskin clothes and a goatskin hat and carrying a goatskin umbrella!"
Hmmm! Well ...personally, I have to disagree. Crusoe's island has torrential rainy seasons twice a year; yes, he mostly stays indoors during those times, but presumably he does have to go outside to use the outhouse (or something similar). And in the dry season, the sun would be extremely hot when he has to be out for long periods tending his crops, hunting, etc. I'd imagine that painful sunburn would be a constant problem. To my mind, even a crude umbrella would be useful to have.
Certainly, I'd agree that constructing a functioning umbrella out of goatskin, with the kinds of materials our protagonist has to work with, would be pretty difficult. But he's more resourceful than the average person, and has time in abundance. IMO, there are probably ways that it could be done.
Werner: "Until today, I hadn't had a chance to read through the comments so far on this thread, but I'm glad I finally got around to doing so!"It's nice to have your comments, Werner. It really is so much more rewarding to read this book with others, especially with the insightful people in our group.
The umbrella is undoubtedly extremely valuable (touching on Lori's comment) to Crusoe. It makes perfect sense, and the thought that Defoe has given to such details as the hair being able to shed water makes it credible as well.
We can agree to disagree about whether it looks ridiculous!
Summary of (Chapter 14)
Robinson’s routine continued basically unchanged for the next five years. Besides his normal survival needs, he spent two years building a new, smaller canoe and bringing it to the creek. Because a proper tree was almost half a mile from the creek, he was forced to dig a canal all that distance to enable him to float the canoe there.
His new canoe was too small to attempt a long trip to the mainland, but Robinson hoped to sail his boat around the island on a voyage of discovery. To that end, he created a mast and sail for the canoe and stocked it with provisions and supplies.
When he launched his little boat and began to circumnavigate the island, he found that reefs and sandbars extended for more than two leagues (six miles) to the east. He debated whether or not to attempt to round them since he would be forced to go far out to sea and might not be able to get back again. He climbed a hill on that end of the island to survey the barrier, and he noticed “a strong, and indeed, a most furious Current, which run to the East, and even came close to the Point” which could sweep him away from the island. He saw, though, that there was an eddy on the other side of the point that would allow him to return to the west if he could exit the current when he cleared the point.
For two days, an opposing wind kept Robinson on shore, but on the third day the wind abated and he launched his boat. As his boat reached the point, he found himself in very deep water with “a Current like the Sluice of a Mill.” As he struggled to escape the current, he realized that he would die of thirst and hunger if he could not return to the island. He understood “how easy it was for the Providence of God to make the most miserable Condition Mankind could be in worse.” Robinson longed to return to the “happy Desart” of his island, and the narrator comments that “we never see the true State of our Condition, till it is illustrated to us by its Contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.”
As he was swept along, Robinson paddled as hard as he could toward the north, thinking to exit the current and find the eddy he had noticed from the hill. He was almost out of sight of the island when a breeze began to blow toward the northwest, which gave him some hope that he would be able to turn back. Fortunately, also, a group of rocks ahead created a countercurrent that pushed Robinson back toward the north side of the island.
Robinson felt like someone who had been given a reprieve just before their execution. At last, he reached the island late in the afternoon. When he landed, he immediately fell to his knees and thanked God for saving him. Then he concealed his boat in a little cove and went to sleep, exhausted.
The next morning, Robinson had to decide how to get back home with his boat. Returning the way he had come was out of the question, and he didn’t know what lay ahead on the west side of the island. He walked along the shore for about three miles, where he discovered a small bay in which to secure his canoe. Continuing along the shore on foot, he arrived at the place he had marked on his earlier overland trip, and from there he hiked to his “Country House.”
When he had arrived and was resting from his fatiguing journey, he was astonished to hear as if in a dream a voice calling, “Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe, poor Robin Crusoe, where are you Robin Crusoe? Where are you? Where have you been?” Starting up in fright, he beheld his parrot Poll sitting on the hedge and repeating the words that Robinson had taught him long ago.
It took some time for Robinson to compose himself, and finally he called the parrot and carried him home. He was at a loss to know how to retrieve his canoe without being swept away from the island again, so he eventually decided to do without a boat entirely even though it had cost him so much effort to construct.
He spent the next year more satisfied with his home than before he had almost lost it, and he “thought I liv’d really very happily in all things, except that of Society.” He had learned valuable skills such as carpentry and making pottery. He also managed to make an ugly but serviceable tobacco pipe, which gave him a great deal of comfort. Finally, he had become adept at weaving baskets and used them for many tasks such as carrying goat meat or storing grain.
As his gunpowder supply had begun to dwindle, Robinson thought again about raising up a herd of tame goats. He still had the female goat he had captured as a kid, but he was unable to secure a male goat to increase his stock. He didn’t have the heart to kill and eat his goat, so she eventually died of old age.
Illustrations for Chapters 12-14
I fired again
Wal Paget, 1891
I hanged them in chains
Wal Paget, 1891
What odd, misshapen, ugly things I made
Wal Paget, 1891
I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth
Wal Paget, 1891
Crusoe builds a large dugout canoe
George Cruikshank, 1831
Crusoe makes a Boat
Unknown artist; published in Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863
Crusoe making a Coat
Unknown artist; published in Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863
I brought it into the creek
Wal Paget, 1891
I fell on my knees
Wal Paget, 1891
Crusoe and Poll the Parrot in dialogue
George Cruikshank, 1831
Crusoe at Dinner
Unknown artist; published in Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863
We have reached the midway point of our group read! We will have two break days to allow for comments and catching up. For comments relating to Chapters 1-14, please comment on this thread so that we can keep things tidy.
We will move on to Chapter 15 on Sunday. Here is the LINK TO THE SECOND THREAD.
Finally, an opportunity to reorganize my thoughts before we begin the next thread. Holiday activities over the last few weeks has combined with other reading commitments has taken all my time so I have only been reading the book and comments, and saving my own thoughts till later. There was a bit of discussion on realism in RC, and whether certain things are probable or even possible. As this is a work of fiction, I think it might be helpful to consider and maybe shout out the ways that Defoe is is crafting the book that even has us discussing believability in a work of fiction, hundreds of years later. If there is one thing Defoe should be praised for it is his ability to create verisimilitude in his story, and we can see things that he is doing that help give us this sense. For example, he adds just enough of carefully selected specific details (almost to the point of boring us with them) that give us a sense of being there and doing the tasks with him. But likewise, he mostly avoids the specific details that would cause us to challenge him. There are quite a number of techniques and tricks Defoe is is using to produce this sense of verisimilitude. Other examples include the author's use of time so the time involved in seems a bit vague despite the items like journal dating, and the pacing of the novel which is quite fast as a whole but has moments when the pace is slowed to echo some task or event being described like the salvaging of the ship's stores.
I look forward to more discussion in the next thread.
Robinson's determination, something Petra has noticed and Erich has supplied with quotations: that's an interesting theme! On the one hand, we expect our hero to grow as he overcomes obstacles. On the other hand, has he really changed that much? Building a canoe even while suspecting he would have serious trouble getting it into the water, not to mention travelling anywhere in it?.. I think he was and is headstrong. Maybe what's changed is that by now he's more realistic about having to face the consequences?..But a chicken coop is definitely more impressive than a canoe :)
Robinson's focus on use: exactly! He never thinks about anything that's not useful, like beauty, or love. Again, Lori says we throw things away, but we also keep things that have sentimental value for us, I bet we can all find at least something in our homes that's absolutely useless and that we would never give up.
Robinson's enslaving people: I think maybe he was doing what the people around him did, not questioning anything; and what Erich said earlier about Robinson being unsettled and easily influenced supports this outlook. But it's interesting that the one time he (I mean Robinson, not Erich) did something he was not expected to do was, go to sea in the very beginning.
I also wondered about the folding mechanism of the handmade umbrella, especially considering that it's the first thing that gets broken in commercially produced ones %)
Erich, thanks once again for the captivating artwork! It's amusing how different Robinson looks in all the illustrations. I particularly like the one in the furry Bermuda shorts :)Sam, oh yes, spot on, as usual! I can easily see how Defoe's contemporaries did not always understand that this was fiction.
Sam: "If there is one thing Defoe should be praised for it is his ability to create verisimilitude in his story, and we can see things that he is doing that help give us this sense. "Thank you, Sam, for sharing your comments. I love your point that Defoe brings us just to the point where things could become tedious and then changes things up. There is also the fact that the island is not specifically identifiable or locatable, so anyone who wanted to "check" the truth of the story wouldn't be able to. In addition, RC runs low on ink in the story, so that is another feasible excuse for moving away from the daily journal entries. The occasional repetition of some of the events (though again, not to the point where it becomes tedious), and the zigzagging back and forth in time are also common in factual narratives, so those elements tend to increase the authenticity as well.
Plateresca has given us some good examples of the types of topics that Defoe did not include that could challenge the believability of the text: How did he keep the bugs away? Where did he get the sewing supplies? How exactly did that umbrella open?
Those blanks that Defoe leaves in the story, for me, tend to increase my engagement. I find myself thinking about what I might do to solve those problems.
Plateresca: "On the other hand, has he really changed that much? Building a canoe even while suspecting he would have serious trouble getting it into the water, not to mention travelling anywhere in it?.. I think he was and is headstrong. Maybe what's changed is that by now he's more realistic about having to face the consequences?"Those are questions I have been asking myself as well. For someone who claims to be content and actually thankful to be on the island, RC is certainly keen to leave it!
More about the Protestant Work EthicProtestantism - and particularly Calvinism - emphasizes the virtues of diligence, discipline, and frugality as important values in what Max Weber in 1905 coined the Protestant Work Ethic. We have noticed these features in Crusoe's character in our discussion.
Diligence - carefulness and persistent effort, is based on the idea that work is good in itself. Robinson is constantly busy; even when he is rained in he is creating baskets, sewing clothing, and creating other useful objects. He must be inactive during the heat of the day, but we never get the sense that he is purposely idle, even though he has enough resources that he is not struggling to survive.
Discipline - and especially self-discipline - is a concept that is closely related to diligence. Robinson must not only work hard, but he must control his impulses and manage himself. He reads the Bible and prays systematically, including observing the sabbath. He allows himself a single ship's biscuit per day until the stock is completely exhausted. He does not eat grain until he has increased his supply, and after that he only plants the amount of grain that will sustain him until the next year.
Frugality is avoiding waste, lavishness, or extravagance. It involves focusing on longer-term goals rather than on instant gratification. Christian simplicity and the resulting avoidance of excessive materialism leads naturally to frugality. We have been commenting about how the value of items in the novel is based on their objective usefulness rather than on a socially constructed meaning.
Adhering to the Protestant Work Ethic does not simply mean obedience to authoritarian rules, but it also signifies that a person has been given grace from God. In Calvinist belief, only those who are predestined to be saved will be saved; because God is omniscient, omnipotent, and lives outside of time, salvation of the individual must be predetermined. While the idea of predestination could lead to apathy (if everything is predetermined, why try?), being diligent, disciplined, and frugal - which often correlates to material success - is an indication to society that a person is marked by God to receive grace. Robinson constantly refers to providence, or God's will, and his ability to stay alive and even thrive on the island when all of his shipmates die shows that he has been singled out.
Source
Protestant work ethic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest...#
I thought the making of the canoe was crazy, especially the size envisioned. The incredible amount of work and then realizing that he could not move it to the water.RC continues to vacillate from being happy with his "kingdom" to despair of ever being able to leave. With these swings, I found it very interesting that he would at the 5th year mark, still be so faithful in his bible reading and other dialogues and actions in reference to his belief in God's grace.
My favorite quote comes as he feels he can't get back to the island in his abortive attempt to sail. Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how I had repin'd at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on shore there again. Thus we never see the true state of our condition, till it is illustrated by its contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.
Chris: "I thought the making of the canoe was crazy, especially the size envisioned. The incredible amount of work and then realizing that he could not move it to the water."Not only that, but he realized early on that he wouldn't be able to move it but just decided to cross that bridge when he came to it. That after spending so much time trying to make the ship's boat serviceable. RC says himself that he has plenty of time, but he could have used that time to improve his life in some other way.
Erich C wrote: "For someone who claims to be content and actually thankful to be on the island, RC is certainly keen to leave it!"Exactly!
I am enjoying our group read and discussion greatly, but I am not a huge fan of RC as a person. I think he's often shallow, self-centred and maybe even cruel (his attitude to animals and non-Europeans might be defined by the mores of the time, but he's also absolutely insensitive to his parents, and I don't mean just in going away from home, and when he remembers the boy Xury it's only because he could have used a pair of hands).
I find his 'king and lord' attitude rather disgusting.
And I'm somewhat sceptical of his religious transformation. I don't see how not sinning because one just can't makes one a better person.
As a character, though, he's interesting. His endless resourcefulness is inspiring, and, though I don't believe he's a much better person now, I do grant him this: he is at least thinking about how to be a better person, which is already more than he did before, so change is possible for him.
Chris, I enjoyed this part, too! Indeed, when I'm in trouble, I often say, 'It could be worse, and probably will be yet'. Erich, thank you for the recap on the Protestant ethic! I agree, RC does try to embody these qualities, and as for being singled out, I cringe at the notion, but I can see how one might be likely to come to this conclusion in RC's circumstances.
Dickensians!
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