Robinson crusoe (97 03) book

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Robinson Kreutznaer (who in England becomes known with the surname “Crusoe”) is a young man from a rich middle-class family. His main purpose is to travel to sea, but his parents disagree with Robinson because they want him to become a lawyer as his father. At first, he tries to accomplish his father’s desire, but his passion for adventures is so strong that after having talked to him, he leaves for a little journey from York to London with a friend. During this journey, there is a little storm so Robinson is very scared about it, because he thinks that it is a sign of God’s punishment for having disobeyed to his parents’ wants. When he goes back home, he decides to ignore this little premonition and leaves again to go to Guinea, in Africa. This voyage ends again in a disaster: his ship is attacked by Moor pirates and Robinson becomes a prisoner. One day, the pirates’ chief orders Robinson, a moor and a friend to go fishing in the sea with a little boat. When they were in the middle of the ocean, Robinson throws the moor in the water and the two men arrived on the shore. After a few days, a Portuguese ship saves them, and Robinson arrives in Brazil. There, he learns how to grow some plants, so, with the help of some natives, he sets up a plantation and becomes very rich. Unfortunately, he feels very unhappy because he wants to travel abroad again, so when the other planters invite him to go to Guinea with him, he accepts. This journey ends in a terrible shipwreck, where everyone dies except for him who, with his last efforts, swims to the nearest shore. On the following day, he realizes what has happened and decides to fetch as many things as he can on the wreck of the ship before it sinks.There, he takes a lot of tools and provisions that he considers useful to survive on the island, including weapons and food. At first Robinson is desperate because he knows that nobody will come and save him, but later on he realizes that his shipwreck was a sign of God’s benevolence because all the crew died apart from himself so he starts to settle down in the island as best as he can.

PlotPlot

Robinson also starts writing a journal, not to lose his reason and his perception of time. In this diary, he thanks God for letting him stay alive. On the island he builds two places where he can live: one near the sea and one in a beautiful valley where he grew a lot of food. He also finds some goats and uses them for their milk and their meat. Besides he also learns how to take care of himself when he is ill. Nonetheless he really missed a friend on the island as solace to his loneliness. In fact he has been living alone on the island for 28 years. So after 20 years of solitude, he discovers some footprints in the sand and he finds some bones on the shore: he realizes that there were some cannibals on the island. Thus he decides to attack but not to kill them, because it was not his right to do that but it was God’s. Among them he saves an escaped prisoner and calls him ‘’Friday’’, after the day when he found him on the island. Robinson teaches him few English words (like “yes”, “no”, “master”) and to read the Bible. Friday’s submission represents the great English Colonization because Robinson is the prototype of the English colonizer. In fact their friendship is, as a matter of fact, a master-servant relationship. After some years a battle between Robinson and the cannibals starts. During this event that seems horrible, Friday finds his father. A European ship arrives on the island at the end of the battle. Thanks to the ship, Robinson can finally return home, where he discovers that his parents died. He marries a woman and has three sons. He also finds out that he has become very rich due to his prosperous plantation in Brazil. After 10 years he wants to return to the island with Friday for their last adventure. Unfortunately, Friday dies in this journey and Robinson becomes governator of the island.