I would like to analyse this work, which is one of the best works, written by Daniel Defoe. Defoe was one of the first to write stories about believable characters in realistic situations using simple prose. He achieved literary immortality when in April 1719 he published Robinson Crusoe, which was based partly on the memoirs of voyagers and castaways, such as Alexander Selkirk. He was the son of a Scottish tanner, who became the master of the Cinque Ports Galley, a privateering ship. As a punishment of insubordination, he was castaway on Mas a Tierra in the Juan Fernandez Islands, hundreds of miles off the coast of Chile. Selkirk spent on the island four years and four months. Defoe was involved in Monmouth rebellion in 1685 against James II. While hiding as a fugitive in a churchyard after the rebellion was put down, he noticed the name Robinson Crusoe carved on a stone, and later gave it to his famous hero. Let´s speak about the extract from this book. Defoe created a realistic frame for the novel, which distinguished it from its predecessors.
This book is written in a style of diary of a castaway. There are written dates that are described what happened to Robinson Crusoe in that day. He counted days by cutting out lines into wood. In the case that he would forget which day is which, he cut out one longer line every week and it meant Sunday. Defoe created very skillful man. Robinson can make clothes from leather of animals and also some others things, like an umbrella, to be in safety from the extreme heats that are on the islands near the equator and also to stay dry during rain. Example: ”I saved the skins of all the creatures that I killed… and I had them hung up, stretched out with sticks, in the sun, …The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my head…waistcoat and breeches open at the knees…”. Defoe describes in details how Robinson produced his clothes, tools and also his “house“ and raft. He also grown barley and rice and bred goats. After many disasters that happens to Robinson Crusoe in his life and also at the island, he did not give it up but he found new sense of his life. He had found Holly Bible on the wreck of the ship and started to pray. As I have already mentioned Robinson is very skillful man and he does not suffer from lack of food. He also produced some tools from wood, like spade and he saved an axe from
the ship. He also brought on the island from the shipwreck guns and gunpowder.