Robinson Crusoe - the final chapters

I finished the last 65 pages. 

When you finish a book,  summarize the ideas that were significant to you in the last section you read. 

Compared to the first 190 pages or so, this section moved along quickly with a lot of action. But there were fewer "ideas" than in previous chapters. It was like Defoe had made his theological points and now wanted to bring the plot to a close. And he does bring the plot to a close by resolving all the conflicts, although he seems to resolve the problem of Crusoe's being shipwrecked on an island by a device that we'd call deus ex machina. (That means solving the problem by a surprise that doesn't seem to flow from situation.) 

A ship arrives by surprise (of course, any ship would be a surprise), but in this case the ship's crew is in mutiny and are attempting to maroon the captain and officers on the island, which they assume to be uninhabited. Crusoe sees this as his best chance to escape. He rescues the captain, and they overpower the crew who have taken them to the island. Then through a variety of means Crusoe and the captain trick the rest of the mutinous crew and overpower them as well. Of course the captain is so thankful that he takes Crusoe back to Europe, along with Friday. 

The denouement of the story also seemed contrived. I'm not sure why Defoe even wrote that last episode of fighting off wolves in the mountains.  It seemed far too contrived and unrealistic. 

When they arrive in Europe they are in Spain, not England. Crusoe looks up some old friends and finds he has become rich during his 27 year exile. He decides to go to England, and because he is afraid of sailing he goes by land. That means traveling over the Pyrenees Mountains in the winter. The travelers encounter a huge, huge pack of wolves and a bear that they fight off. But they finally make it to safety and then to England. 

Crusoe settles down to live on his income from the Brazilian estate. Finally, out of boredom or want of adventure, he assays to go again to the island to see how the men are doing whom he left (they are the mutinous crew and some Spaniards from the mainland). It has turned out well for these men as well, and it all ends happily ever after. 

  Conclude by making a personal recommendation. Is this a book you'd recommend to other readers. If so, why? If not, why?

I think the book is one that anyone who wants to be "well read" should read. But it is a book only students of literature will enjoy. It is a historically significant book being one of the first English novels and a prototype other similar works. But to be honest, it is not a book many today will find readable. It is filled with tedious detail and introspection and very little action, except for the last section. It was no doubt fascinating to the readers of the early 1700s, but today most readers do not have the patience for it. 

Nevertheless, it is a book I was glad to have read. 

Robinson Crusoe

pp. 182-190  Everyone recognizes that Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe as a religious tract. In the early pages Defoe tells of Crusoe's  turning to God  from a life of carelessness about spiritual things and occupation with the affairs of life. Only as he is shipwrecked alone on an island does he become introspective and begin to think about what life is about. But by the point I am in the story - twenty-seven years into his isolation - he has come to trust that God allowed all this for his good.

In the pages I read today, Crusoe is a well confirmed believer. But now he has a companion, an Indian he calls Friday. He has been trying to understand what Friday knows about God and to explain what he has come to believe. In the process he has to think through what he does believe. Those thoughts are, of course, Defoe's message. And that message is particularly inspiring.

Friday, who has become a believer in God also, now is thinking about going back to his people on the mainland about forty miles away. Crusoe is concerned that Friday will return to his pagan beliefs, but Friday is quite confident in his new faith. But if Friday does return, will he face danger from his own people?

Friday's answer is no; they will be interested in what he has learned. And what about Crusoe. So far he has been afraid of the Indians on the mainland. But now it is beginning to sound as if Crusoe will go with Friday to the mainland. Maybe there is hope that he could contact other Europeans and find rescue. We will see in the next few pages.

Robinson Crusoe

I began reading Robinson Crusoe again while the class is reading. I'm getting toward the end of the book. Robinson has saved the Indian, whom he names Friday, and is discovering how intelligent Friday is.

Robinson has been able to engage Friday in a conversation about God and has discovered that Friday already has some perception of God, though it is distorted by the Indian priests who are using their position to gain power in the tribe. (That sounds too much like the state of religion in England at the time Daniel Defoe was writing.)

However, being able to take Friday beyond his superstitions to an understanding of the real God is a challenge for Robinson. He realizes his own faith in God has not been sufficiently thought through.

The book is obviously intended to be critique of civil religion in England in the 1700s. But it also probes some of the issues we face today, such as if it is necessary to preach the gospel to primitive people who may already have some knowledge of God, and how to do so.