Thoughts at the end of Robinson…

One thing that immediately popped out at me was that Crusoe was very refelctive on the fact that his father had not wanted him to leave home to explore. He had these thoughts even before he was deserted, and then once he is deserted he looks back on it as smart advice and something he wished he had listened to. I found that Defoe introduced an inner conflict within Crusoe quite early and this conflict remained prominent to the end.

Another thing that stuck out to me was how calm Crusoe remained during the story. If I had been stranded on a beach with only myself to depend on, I’d be a bit more upset than what he demonstrated. I was also suprised to learn that he was dependant on God. At the beginning of the novel, Defoe does not suggest that Crusoe is the type that would depend on God, but I suppose that desperate times call for desperate measures.

I personally wonder what and if there is symbolism behind the lists. The narrator is constantly listing things to the reader, weather it be provisions that Crusoe has secured, or listing the reasons why it is a good/ bad thing that he is in the current situation. I am sure there is a reason, but I cannot pin point it. This was my greatest question in the novel. Was it just a ploy to keep his sanity, and to keep himself grounded?

Finally, I was captivated by the way Crusoe approached his situation. His goal was to recreate the world in which he lived in. He had two homes, he farmed, he made a home on the island. He created an environment around him which povided comfort and stability. This stood out to me because of how civilized he made the island. If someone picked up the book and opened it half way through, and had no previous knowledge of the plot of Robinson Crusoe, I doubt their first thought would be shipwrecked, just by the lifestyle he was living on the island. This was quite interesting to me.

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