LELE - Travel, Exile, Initiation Narratives.

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2 EXTRACT LITERARY ANALYSIS The narrator of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, has a prominent style of depending on reason and religious belief. Defoe, as a journalist, makes the novel seem real, not fiction by mentioning many details. There are lists of objects and actions which make the reader think that whatever happens to Crusoe is true. The author produces this impression of complete reality by employing three main methods which are the using of details, the form of biography or the first person narration. Apart from being an exciting account of a man s adventures on an uninhabited island, the book, Robinson Crusoe has been found to possess a profound allegorical significance. For many, Crusoe's many references to God, to Providence, to sin are key to the real interest of the novel When I was come down the Hill, to the Shore, as I said above, being the S.W. Point of the Island, I was perfectly confounded and amaz'd ; nor is it possible for me to express the Horror of my Mind, at seeing the Shore spread with Skulls, Hands, Feet, and other Bones of humane Bodies; and particularly I observ'd a Place where there had been a Fire made, and a Circle dug in the Earth, like a Cockpit, where it is suppos'd the Savage Wretches had sat down to their inhumane Feastings upon the Bodies of their Fellow-Creatures. I was so astonish'd with the Sight of these Things, that I entertain'd no Notions of any Danger to my self from it for a long while; All my Apprehensions were bury'd in the Thoughts of such a Pitch of inhuman, hellish Brutality, and the Horror of the Degeneracy of Humane Nature ; which though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near a View of before ; in short, I turn'd away my Face from the horrid Spectacle ; my Stomach grew sick, and I was just at the Point of Fainting, when Nature discharg'd the Disorder from my Stomach; and having vomited with an uncommon violence, I was a little reliev'd; but cou'd not bear to stay in the Place a Moment; so I gat me up the Hill again, with the Speed I cou'd, and walk'd on towards my own Habitation. When I came a little out of that Part of the Island, I stood a while as amaz'd; and then recovering my self, I look'd with the utmost Affection of my Soul, and with a Flood Tears in my Eyes, gave God Thanks that had cast my Lot in a Part of the World, where I was distinguish'd from such dreadful Creatures as these; and that though I had esteem'd my present Condition very miserable, had yet given me so many Comforts in it, that I had still more to give Thanks for than to complain of; and this above all, that had even in this miserable Condition been comforted with the Knowledge of himself, and the Hope of his Blessing, which was a Felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the Misery which I had suffer'd, or could suffer. BACKGROUND DANIEL DEFOE English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. As a boy, Daniel witnessed two of the greatest disasters of the 17th century: a recurrence of the plague and the Great Fire of London in These events may have shaped his fascination with catastrophes and survival in his writing. A fervent critic of King James II, Defoe became affiliated with the supporters of the duke of Monmouth, who led a rebellion against the king in He wrote pamphlets to criticize the Anglicans. One of these, The Shortest Way with Dissenters, was a satire mocking their practices. As a result, Defoe was publicly pilloried his hands and wrists locked in a wooden device in 1703, and jailed in Newgate Prison. Defoe began writing fiction late in life, around the age of sixty. He published his first novel, Robinson Crusoe, in 1719, attracting a large middle-class readership. Robinson Crusoe was based on the true story of a shipwrecked seaman named Alexander Selkirk and was passed off as history. His focus on the actual conditions of everyday life made Defoe a revolutionary in English literature and helped define the new genre of the novel. LITERARY CONTEXT Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was a commercial blockbuster that captured the imagination of its early 18th-century readers. The original story of Selkirk who was eventually rescued in 1709 appeared in print and periodicals in England. Robinson Crusoe deals with many of the critical Issues on the minds of people in 18th-century England. "He is the true prototype of the British colonist.... The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity." James Joyce. " It is the habitual carriage of the umbrella that is the stamp of Respectability. Robinson Crusoe was rather a moralist than a pietist, and his leaf-umbrella is as fine an example of the civilised mind striving to express itself under adverse circumstances as we have ever met with. " Robert Louis Stevenson Religion

3 character's spiritual autobiography. He starts off as the typical prodigal son and finds himself struggling against the will of God. His journal on the island charts his spiritual awakening, atonement, and eventual conversion to Christianity. reads on like a spiritual parable. Philosophy How does man exist in a state of nature? What is the relationship between man and society? Philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were already thinking about social contract that is, man's relationship to the society he lives in. about a man living alone in the wilderness who forms his own little society. Social class Crusoe's family is staunchly middle class something Crusoe at first resists. Middle class (merchants and traders) was just emerging in 18th-century England. way for readers to start really thinking through middle-class values and beliefs. Imperial expansion commercial capitalism boomed in England Fascination for new exotic goods and the places from which they came. people who are not English are depicted as savage wretches striking instances of Eurocentrism here. WARNING! Crusoe's story include participation in the slave trade. BUT he is both a slave and a slave owner in this novel always something to remember. As the story unfolds, there are sailing ships and stormy seas and a desert island and guns and cannibals, it s action-packed in exotic and faraway places. It s not just interior monologues and introspection... Reality in 1719: imperialism / colonization / The British rule over the world / they think they are more civilized than others. The average British man / woman can not travel to exotic places / they are bored at home / they don t have the time / means / transport facilities to go to a coconut island whenever they feel like it > ESCAPISM Fiction : as middle-class readers are told on the news about shipwrecks and newfound territories but can not travel there overnight, they both idealize and fear foreign exotic places and people. LESSON NOTES REALISM & FICTION in this extract What strikes you? Lost? Shipwrecked? Stranded? Cannibalism, really? We expected more descriptions / more travel adventure and less introspection. We also expected more difficult words. There are dead bodies, he is alone. [Capital letters? > just because the typography and capitalization wasn t standardized in the 18th century > doesn t make these words more important.] ISSUE QUESTION How do writers find a balance between reality and fiction in travel stories? In this extract the narrator discovers footprints and remains of dead bodies which he infers were leftovers from a cannibal feast. We know his exact position on the island and verbs of perception are used to describe his discovery. We are urged to be both frightened and disgusted, the narrator vomits at the sight. Instead of finding a rational or scientific explanation, Robinson explains that these creatures are degenerate and derive pleasure from eating their own kind. What he discovers is described with specific details but also viewed through a believer s eyes as most adjectives echo biblical description of hellish creatures. The use of the biblical lexical field and the fact that readers are tricked to believe the narrator actually existed proves that this novel is in fact an allegory for Defoe s religious and political views.

4 Voyage & Return Stories - From Christopher Booker s theory in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Write Stories. What a Voyage and Return Story is and what its pattern is. A Voyage and Return story is a an adventure story about a life-changing experience. The hero can be alone or with a group and is forced or has chosen to break away from his familiar environment. He leaves his home, discovers a new place and struggles to survive and adapt to it and finally goes back home. When he is back he is a new man, he has learnt a lot about himself and humanity in general. Why Daniel Defoe s Robinson Crusoe is the paradigm of all Voyage and Return Stories. Robinson Crusoe is a paradigm because it s the original model for Voyage and Return Stories. When we think about adventure stories and island, this name is the first that comes to our mind. It is the epitome / the best example of the cast-away hero. Discuss why being stranded on an island can be a good starting point for fiction writing. An island can be a starting point for fiction writing because it triggers the imagination, a lot of descriptions and we never know what might happen to the hero. The hero discovers his new environment just like the reader does. It can also teach us lessons about what is unknown, different or uncivilized. What or who can these stories be written for? It addresses kids or grown-ups because it portrays the evil or dark side of man, teaches us right from wrong and moral values. Voyage & Return Stories - From Christopher Booker s theory in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Write Stories. What a Voyage and Return Story is and what its pattern is. A Voyage and Return story is a an adventure story about a life-changing experience. The hero can be alone or with a group and is forced or has chosen to break away from his familiar environment. He leaves his home, discovers a new place and struggles to survive and adapt to it and finally goes back home. When he is back he is a new man, he has learnt a lot about himself and humanity in general. Why Daniel Defoe s Robinson Crusoe is the paradigm of all Voyage and Return Stories. Robinson Crusoe is a paradigm because it s the original model for Voyage and Return Stories. When we think about adventure stories and island, this name is the first that comes to our mind. It is the epitome / the best example of the cast-away hero. Discuss why being stranded on an island can be a good starting point for fiction writing. An island can be a starting point for fiction writing because it triggers the imagination, a lot of descriptions and we never know what might happen to the hero. The hero discovers his new environment just like the reader does. It can also teach us lessons about what is unknown, different or uncivilized. What or who can these stories be written for? It addresses kids or grown-ups because it portrays the evil or dark side of man, teaches us right from wrong and moral values.

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