Answer: Daniel Defoe is a skillful artist. With the help of his magnanimous penmanship, he has successfully depicted a single man’s survival against the forces of nature. Defoe had his hero cast upon a deserted island,’ an ‘island of despair’, and endows the hero with all the masterful qualities of an individual required to confront or deal with such an environment. Robinson Crusoe is the man who meticulously dealt with the primary events of his island life and conquered nature and lived there an eventful life of twenty-eight years. When he leaves the island, he leaves as a king, Lord, and lawgiver of his island with unflinching obedience from his subjects.
After a lot of peril and adventure, Robinson Crusoe could swim ashore in an attempt to survive the shipwreck. He was so tired and exhausted when he reached the island that he felt himself to be at the verge of death. But the instinct for survival was so strong within him that he never thought of surrendering himself to the forces of nature. The first thing he thought of is fresh water because he knew of the impossibility of his survival without fresh water. He managed to refresh himself with fresh water. To save himself from any possible danger, he sleeps on the tree trunk. He uses his ratiocinative skill, ingenuity, and foresight to bring things from the ship that fortunately comes on his way. He was. He was very calculative and he knew surely well about which items should top the list in case of unloading things from the ship.
At a suitable hour, he swam to the ship and managed to get into it. First of all, he searched for food or edible items to meet his hunger. He found biscuits which he ate to his heart’s content. Then he instantly builds a raft and loads it with things that might be useful for his survival right now or later. The items of goods include; bread, rice, cheese, corn, barley, wheat, wine;’ goat’s flesh, arms, ammunition, fowling pieces, shot, powder, swords, and the carpenter’s tools, He visits the stranded ship twelve times and brings such things on the island as oars, saws, hammer, sails, rigging, nails, spikes, grindstone, screwjacks, hatches, iron crows, barrels, clothes, hammock, bedding, scissors, knives, forks and money though of zio use at this moment.
To store his things Crusoe builds a cave. He chooses a suitable location for habitation and fortifies it with fences so that he can safeguard and secure himself and his goods from the attack of any wild animals. He raises the tent as protection from the rain.
We see Robinson Crusoe rearing and taming goats. He grows rice and barby and reaps the harvest. He weaves baskets to store his crops and makes earthenware to be used for liquid things. Bit by bit, he turns into a farmer, a basket weans, and a potter to make his life more comfortable on the island.
His reconnoiter trip to the island gives Crusoe an idea about the circumference of the island. He catches and tames parrots and teaches them to speak his name in an entreating way. He discovers a more hygienic and comfortable area on the island which he calls his bower and country home. He found plenty of grapes but takes precautions before eating them. He dries the grapes to make raisins and to use them for a long in the future. He builds a sort of scarecrow to scare the wild birds from the corn fields. Now he is well equipped with all the means of survival. e has his house to live in, and he has an animal farm for his meals. He has plenty of milk, cheese, and butter to provide him with wholesome dishes. Now he can make his clothes, cap, and umbrella for his use.
Thus Crusoe has conquered his environment, he is now living in milk and honey, he has no want except for a heartfelt desire for the human company to converse with.
Here lies the widespread appeal of Robinson Crusoe that its hero comes out as a victorious survivor against the forces of nature. Not only that, he creates a civilization, he transforms chaos in the cosmos, and survivalism into society and it becomes possible for him only because of his unflinching obedience to God, the supreme Designer.
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