english 12 - mr. rinka lesson #32 robinson crusoe by daniel defoe

English 12 - Mr. RinkaLesson #32

Robinson CrusoeBy

Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe

Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe

his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a Captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. With

the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation. Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river on September 30, 1659. The details of Crusoe's island were

probably based on the Caribbean island of Tobago, since that island lies a short distance north of the Venezuelan coast near the mouth of the Orinoco river, in sight of Trinidad. Only he and three animals, the captain's dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools, and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He builds a

fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship, and ones he makes himself, he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery, and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in

which nothing is missing but human society. More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. He

dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity. After more natives arrive to partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and

Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port.

Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island. Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship and leave the worst mutineers on the island. Before embarking for England, Crusoe

shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men coming. Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687. He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In

conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England to avoid travelling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, en route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the Pyrenees.

LA 12 Robinson Crusoe.doc

Robinson Crusoe

leaves home and is

shipwrecked.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A._F._Lydon_Robinson_Crusoe_Plate_01_(1865).JPG



Robinson Crusoe uses

a raft to save many

useful things.




Robinson

Crusoe creates a cross

calendar.




Robinson Crusoe surveys

his island.




Robinson Crusoe is awakened

by his parrot.





Robinson Crusoe at

dinner with his little family.




Robinson Crusoe

frightened by a goat in a

cave.





Robinson Crusoe rescues

Friday from savages.





Robinson Crusoe and

Friday attacking the

savages.





Robinson Crusoe

surprising the three

Englishmen.





Source

There were many stories of real-life castaways in Defoe's time. Defoe's immediate inspiration for Crusoe is usually thought to be a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers' expedition after four years on the uninhabited island

of Más a Tierra in the Juan Fernández Islands off the Chilean coast. Rogers' "Cruising Voyage" was published in 1712, with an account of Alexander Selkirk's ordeal. However, Robinson Crusoe is far from a copy of Woodes Rogers' account: Selkirk was marooned at his own request, while Crusoe was shipwrecked; the islands are different; Selkirk lived alone for the whole time, while Crusoe found

companions; while Selkirk stayed on his island for four years, not twenty-eight. Furthermore, much of the appeal of Defoe's novel is the detailed and captivating account of Crusoe's thoughts, occupations and activities which goes far beyond that of Rogers' basic descriptions of Selkirk, which account for only a few pages.

Tim Severin's book Seeking Robinson Crusoe (2002) unravels a much wider and more plausible range of potential sources of inspiration, and concludes by identifying castaway surgeon Henry Pitman as the most likely. An employee of the Duke of Monmouth, Pitman played a part in the Monmouth Rebellion. His short book about his desperate escape from a

Caribbean penal colony, followed by his shipwrecking and subsequent desert island misadventures, was published by J. Taylor of Paternoster Row, London, whose son William Taylor later published Defoe's novel. Severin argues that since Pitman appears to have lived in the lodgings above the father's publishing house and that Defoe himself was a mercer in the area at

the time, Defoe may have met Pitman in person and learned of his experiences first-hand, or possibly through submission of a draft. Severin states: "I proved that Pitman’s story was correct. And there are astonishing parallels with what happens to Crusoe. You know, Pitman and his companions try to make pottery. They have a man

Friday figure with them who helps them catch fish. And, above all, they are rescued by pirates in exactly the same way that Crusoe was rescued by pirates. And even the names--there’s a Jeremiah Atkins, who’s a famous pirate in Pitman’s story, and there’s a Will Atkins in Crusoe’s story. I mean, the names even crop up the same. The overlap is astonishing. So I come back to London to write my

book and I check Pitman’s narrative. On the last page there was an advertisement and it was by Pitman who was a surgeon. He had come back to London, set himself up as an apothecary, and he gave the address of the shop where you could go and buy his medicine. It was the address of Daniel Defoe’s publisher for Robinson Crusoe. Pitman had come back from the Caribbean

where he had been a castaway on a desert island, and he had lived with the family that [shortly thereafter] published Robinson Crusoe for Daniel Defoe. And if that ain’t the "smoking gun" that links the two stories, I don’t know what else could possibly be.“ Severin also discusses another publicized case of a marooned man

named only as Will, of the Miskito people of Central America, who may have led to the depiction of Man Friday.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Selkirk_Title_Page.jpg

Assignment

Continue reading your novel.

English 12 - Mr. RinkaLesson #32

Robinson CrusoeBy

Daniel Defoe

english 12 - mr. rinka lesson #32 robinson crusoe by daniel defoe

Documents

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details of crusoes island