Robinson Crusoe

Worksheet 1 – Robinson Crusoe

Read the excerpt provided and answer the following questions. Check a reference book if necessary, but please make sure to express and justify your opinion about the points below in the first place.

a. Which adjectives would you apply to the main character according to the texts you have read?

I would define Robinson Crusoe as a dominant, generous, self-sufficient, brave, strong, smart, surviving, imaginative, practical, adaptable and hard working man.

Robinson Crusoe finds himself alone in a lost island. He manages to find water and food, and to make tools that will help him fishing, cooking… He becomes a self-sufficient man because he’s got no choice. In order to keep himself alive, he adopts a brave and strong attitude that leads him to discover and create new ways to take care of himself. He experiments, he tries his new ideas, and he works hard because he knows that this will bring him the food needed, etc. Also, when he meets Friday, he shows himself dominant and superior to him, but even though Friday becomes his slave, he still is generous and comprehensive with him. Being smart turns into a necessity when surviving depends on it. And he did for 25 years.

b. Man and nature in the novel. What is Robinson Crusoe’s attitude towards the island and its resources?

Robinson Crusoe uses what ha can find in the island to create his own environment where he can live and survive. He gets everything from nature as the main source to make everything he needs. He takes materials and nutrients and transforms them himself. This is what Defoe’s preaches in this book, that raw materials are the beginning of a manufacturing process which men have to create in order to produce what will bring benefit.

c. Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. What is the relationship between them?

They have a relationship of Master and slave even though Crusoe treats him fairly well. He teaches him his moral standards and tries to turn him into a civilised man. In spite of teaching, feeding and providing him of a new home, Friday is never treated as an equal by his Master. This happens because he sees Friday like a wild being whose behaviour is closer to the one typical of an animal rather than a human being and so, he adopts a superior position towards him.

d. The rise of capitalism. How is it perceived in the novel? Would you define the main character as a capitalist? Why?

The novel Robinson Crusoe is entirely written to explain the rise of Capitalism. From the beginning the character finds himself in an adventure that, in order to survive, forces him to adopt the attitude of a survivor, just as the new capitalists were doing back home in England.
He develops a sense of economical own safety and begins to approach towards that direction.
To survive in a lost and lonely island he manages to obtain his own economical success, which, in the novel, are his basic needs. Later on he even creates his own world of commodities for his economical advantage. Again, by adopting this capitalist attitude.
All this, together with relationships importance diminished due to the social thought that they were considered the strangest non-rational factors in human life at the moment, emphasizes the individual interest for economical success.
So, I consider Robinson Crusoe’s attitude as the typical of a capitalist.

e. Colonisation and Empire. How are these aspects represented in the novel? Does the novel justify colonisation of “uncivilised” lands?

His alienation in a lost island represents the image that people had of the colonies, something that happened far, far away and had nothing to do with their current lives style in their home countries. In the same way, they perceived the colonies inhabitants so different that they ended up treating them as slaves rather than human beings. They also traded with them; just as they did with everything they could sell and make money with from these colonies. This is more less the attitude of Robinson Crusoe towards his native “friend”, Friday. He basically uses him for his own interest and in the end he controls Friday’s economy and transforms his thoughts without asking him, like they did when they colonized new countries. Friday obeys and even admires Crusoe, just as the perfect slave.
Yes, the novel justifies the colonisation of uncivilised lands. They’re seen as a source of richness and very cheap raw materials.

Irene Costa Alcàntara.
08-09-08.
Introduction to English literature.