The novel Robinson Crusoe has taught me much about the 17th Century world like geography, language, and the sailor’s dangerous way of life. But it mostly taught me that I could not last two days stranded on an island all alone. Though Robinson Crusoe is a fictional man, his character in the novel is truly amazing. To survive over 20 years alone with nothing more than his mind and determination to help him survive, kept me reading through the novel eager to hear his story. True Crusoe got very lucky to have a ship full of tools and weapons waiting for him on the bay and many goats roaming the island to eat, they are just objects by themselves and it was the creative ways he used those objects that kept him alive and strong.
There are many reasons why I could not live like Crusoe on an empty island if I had to. I am certain that the need for human company would slowly drain me of my life. I would turn mad and start talking to anything around me, desperate for companionship. It brings to my mind Tom Hanks and his “friend” Wilson from the movie Cast Away, and how he grabbed a hold to anything to love and speak with. Though Crusoe was depressed for want of friends, he did not go insane or dispirited, but smartly trained a parrot to talk instead. Granted, Poll the parrot was not human, I think it gave Crusoe just the right amount of contact with something that speaks to keep his voice and sanity alive until Friday joined him.
Though maddening to some readers, I actually enjoyed all the little “annoying” details given about the objects Crusoe made and how he did it. It made the story real to me and I was amazed at the inventive ways he came up with tools and clothing. The novel would not have felt the same had the narrator just said he rode out in a boat, for I would have wondered how Crusoe got the boat. I have no skill or vision myself to create any objects like Crusoe did. His umbrella, pots, baskets, and candles are inspired inventions. I am definitely not a gardener either and am certain I would starve for even house plants die under my care and the thought of killing animals by my own hand is beyond repulsive. It does not help my case that I’m allergic or hate most food, especially the foul things Crusoe consumed. It has been said though, that when people are desperate enough for food they would do anything to get it, no matter how distasteful. That is even shown in the novel when the starving sailors attacked the kitchen door violently, wanting something to eat. But I am 100% certain though that I could not murder poor animals like Crusoe did and I would starve first. I found this novel an interesting read that opened my eyes to many things. Though Crusoe seemed like a sucker for punishment who didn’t learn his lesson to stay away from the sea, he was also a strong, smart, and determined survivor. I know from reading this novel that if ever I get stranded on an island I would be the person that crawls into the corner of a cave and withers away for I am not that emotionally strong to make it. True, I could live without most of the luxuries in life that I take for granted and spoil me like TV, cars, and electricity, but the need for running water, medicine, and edible food would break me. I do wonder how long society would last if we all had to live like Robinson Crusoe because technology just stopped?
