Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is a spiritual autobiography* written by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719.
The main character is Robinson Kreutznaer, anglicised Crusoe. He born in 1632 in a middle-class family, which wants that he works as a member of the trading. In opposite, he leaves his country at the age of 19 to travel around the world and to find fortune. He makes two travels, during the first one he goes to Guinea while during the second one first he is captured by Moorish pirates but he is able to escape; then he is rescued by a Portuguese ship that brings him to Brazil.

There he becomes the owner of a plantation and to get more slaves he sets a voyage to Africa, where he is shipwrecked on a desert island for 28 years. During this period he writes a diary where he tells his experiences and he tries to make that land as his native country. After 12 years of solitude he meets some cannibals, so he decides to attack them twice but they escape and the first time they leave one of their captives, that he calls Friday, while the second time they leave two prisoners, one of whom is Friday’s father. The novel ends with Robinson Crusoe’s return to England thanks to the Brazilian plantation that makes him very rich.
The life of the guy on the island represent the theme of the relationships between the individual and society, in fact the society that Robinson creates can’t be an alternative to the English one but can represent the exaltation of the 18-century in England. Robinson’s attitude shows that God chooses people’s destiny but every person can change it through actions, in particular when he decides to find his very identity as an alternative to the middle-class’ works.
*because is full of references to God like when Robinson prays to God to be freed from sin rather than to be rescued from the island.