Thursday, January 21, 2010
Robinson Crusoe: A Synopsis
"...the mighty river Orinoco in the mouth of which river, as I thought afterwords, our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to the west and north-west, was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river."
"I saw here an abundance of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon trees and citron trees..."
With only leftover remnants of his previous civilization courtesy of a shipwreck, Crusoe must come face to face with nature against a man accustomed to civilization. Crusoe almost instantly feels basic survival instincts manifest themselves as he climbs into a tree to prevent attack from wild animals. It isn't long before Crusoe becomes anxious to start building and begins to re-establish the so called "order" and civilization he is accustomed to as he forces his way on nature and begins to manufacture actual dwellings like a hut and a tent.
Island Survival Kit
“…more intent upon getting at the ship, where I hoped to find something for my present subsistence.”
Robinson Crusoe’s story essentially shows how a man can survive on an island with the only supplies salvaged from his ship. These items collectively create Crusoe’s Island Survival Kit which enables him to live quite comfortably for 28 years.
“Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened, which was a hundred thousand to one, that the ship floated from the place where she first struck, and was driven so near the shore that I had time to get all things out of her. What would have been my case, if I had been obliged to have lived in the condition in which I at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and procure them?”
The following images list the items and resources that Crusoe obtained from the shipwrecks and from the island itself:
The following list is compilation of the items that Crusoe fabricates from the materials he has salvaged from the shipwrecks and gathered from the island:
Robinson Crusoe’s story essentially shows how a man can survive on an island with the only supplies salvaged from his ship. These items collectively create Crusoe’s Island Survival Kit which enables him to live quite comfortably for 28 years.
“Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened, which was a hundred thousand to one, that the ship floated from the place where she first struck, and was driven so near the shore that I had time to get all things out of her. What would have been my case, if I had been obliged to have lived in the condition in which I at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and procure them?”
The following images list the items and resources that Crusoe obtained from the shipwrecks and from the island itself:
The following list is compilation of the items that Crusoe fabricates from the materials he has salvaged from the shipwrecks and gathered from the island:
Apartment in the Tree
Name: Apartment in the Tree
Location: A couple miles up the shore from where he was shipwrecked.
Purpose: Crusoe is shipwrecked on the island and with no materials and equipment to work with; he must find a temporary shelter that will protect him from the weather and the possible threat of wild animals on the island.
Size and Scale: Crusoe describes his first house as a “thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny…”. As the island was loosely based on Tobago, the sapodilla tree is a semi-evergreen tree indigenous to the area and is quite possibly the location of Crusoe’s first home. They tend to grow up to 10-15m in height.
Timeline: Crusoe stays at the tree only for the first night on the island. He moves on to a new shelter the next day. Sapodilla trees have a relatively short life span with its peak growth at 20 years.
“I went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so as that if I should sleep I might not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my lodging”
Location: A couple miles up the shore from where he was shipwrecked.
Purpose: Crusoe is shipwrecked on the island and with no materials and equipment to work with; he must find a temporary shelter that will protect him from the weather and the possible threat of wild animals on the island.
Size and Scale: Crusoe describes his first house as a “thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny…”. As the island was loosely based on Tobago, the sapodilla tree is a semi-evergreen tree indigenous to the area and is quite possibly the location of Crusoe’s first home. They tend to grow up to 10-15m in height.
Timeline: Crusoe stays at the tree only for the first night on the island. He moves on to a new shelter the next day. Sapodilla trees have a relatively short life span with its peak growth at 20 years.
“I went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so as that if I should sleep I might not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my lodging”
Hut with Tent
Name: Hut with tent
Definition: A crude or makeshift dwelling or shelter.
Location: Crusoe makes his way up a stream in search of a new location for his inhabitation. He docks when he reaches a flat area of land on the right side of the stream. Crusoe decides to situate his new shelter a little farther off the stream to enable him to stay along the same coast where he landed.
Purpose: Crusoe moved from his old shelter to explore and find a better site which could still protect him from the weather and wild animals. Now that he salvaged some goods from the wreck, he also needed suitable storage and shelter to protect them from spoiling or getting ruined. Again, the house is simply a temporary shelter until he can get rescued and/or better materials and more time to create a more permanent home.
How it is made: Crusoe simply salvages materials from the shipwreck to create his home using three seaman’s chests, a carpenter’s chest and casks which are stacked to make up the wall while planks are combined to form a roof. A tent is also built a day later when he manages to salvage some poles and a sail from the wreckage.
“I went to work to make me a little tent, with the sail and some poles which I cut for that purpose; and into this tent I brought everything that I knew would spoil, either with rain or sun ; and I piled all the empty chests and; casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt, either from man or beast.”
“I barricaded myself round with the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's lodging”
Size and Scale: The hut/tent is just big enough for himself, a chest of perishable goods and a couple muskets.
Timeline: Crusoe builds the hut on the second night and on the third he builds the tent.
Narrative: Typically huts are used for nomads as temporary shelters made up of indigenous materials to the land.
Definition: A crude or makeshift dwelling or shelter.
Location: Crusoe makes his way up a stream in search of a new location for his inhabitation. He docks when he reaches a flat area of land on the right side of the stream. Crusoe decides to situate his new shelter a little farther off the stream to enable him to stay along the same coast where he landed.
Purpose: Crusoe moved from his old shelter to explore and find a better site which could still protect him from the weather and wild animals. Now that he salvaged some goods from the wreck, he also needed suitable storage and shelter to protect them from spoiling or getting ruined. Again, the house is simply a temporary shelter until he can get rescued and/or better materials and more time to create a more permanent home.
How it is made: Crusoe simply salvages materials from the shipwreck to create his home using three seaman’s chests, a carpenter’s chest and casks which are stacked to make up the wall while planks are combined to form a roof. A tent is also built a day later when he manages to salvage some poles and a sail from the wreckage.
“I went to work to make me a little tent, with the sail and some poles which I cut for that purpose; and into this tent I brought everything that I knew would spoil, either with rain or sun ; and I piled all the empty chests and; casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt, either from man or beast.”
“I barricaded myself round with the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's lodging”
Size and Scale: The hut/tent is just big enough for himself, a chest of perishable goods and a couple muskets.
Timeline: Crusoe builds the hut on the second night and on the third he builds the tent.
Narrative: Typically huts are used for nomads as temporary shelters made up of indigenous materials to the land.
Country house
Name: Country house
Location: Crusoe explores the island by heading northwest of his sea-coast house into a more heavily wooded area with plentiful resources such as fruit trees and fresh water.
Purpose: Crusoe finds the land to be beautiful and a more suitable home as there is an abundance of food in the forests. However, Crusoe does not want to remove his old shelter because he would lose the seashore house as a place to look out for ships heading down the coast. Instead, he builds the country house as a second home where he will live during the dry season.
“...to inclose myself among the hills and woods, in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and that, therefore, I ought not by any means to remove.”
How it is made: Crusoe describes building a bower which is a rustic dwelling made out of leaves and brushwood. He surrounds it with a double hedged fence using stakes that would later grow into trees. The growth of the stakes comes as a pleasant surprise to Crusoe who immediately recognizes the excellent shading and defensive barrier provided by the growing tree wall. Crusoe does not recognize the tree, though he refers to it as "osier-like wood". Upon further research into the vegetation of Tobago and other Caribbean islands, our group strongly believes that the tree species described would have closely resembled the Bursera Simaruba ("Gumbo-limbo"), which is frequently used as living fencing because of its rapid growth rate and because it is easily transplanted1. Crusoe later employs this fence technology for the outer wall and surrounding forest barrier around his sea-coast house.
The tree walls create a very secure dwelling but require a ladder to climb over the hedge. As time passed the trees grew and provided shade during the hot season. He eventually builds a tent as well and continues to furnish when he has extra time. He also creates another area for his animals. The following image shows the country house in it's early form, one year after Crusoe's arrival on the island:
The following image shows the country house after 4 years, once the stakes have grown into trees.
“Under this I had made me a squab, or couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me”
“Adjoining to this, I had my inclosures for my cattle, that is to say, my goats. As I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and inclose this ground, I was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest the goats should break through, that I never left off till, with infinite labour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was scarcely room to put a hand through between them. Afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, they made the inclosure strong like a wall, indeed, stronger than any wall.”
Size: The enclosure including the hedge grows out to 25 yards in diameter.
Timeline: Crusoe begins building the country house in August of the first year. He continues to make improvements throughout his stay on the island. The first version of his country house was made in approximately a month’s time.
Narrative: In the middle ages a cottage was often accompanied with a barn as well as a small plot of land. In the modern day, a cottage usually refers to a vacation home or a summer residence typically in a rural location.
Location: Crusoe explores the island by heading northwest of his sea-coast house into a more heavily wooded area with plentiful resources such as fruit trees and fresh water.
Purpose: Crusoe finds the land to be beautiful and a more suitable home as there is an abundance of food in the forests. However, Crusoe does not want to remove his old shelter because he would lose the seashore house as a place to look out for ships heading down the coast. Instead, he builds the country house as a second home where he will live during the dry season.
“...to inclose myself among the hills and woods, in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and that, therefore, I ought not by any means to remove.”
How it is made: Crusoe describes building a bower which is a rustic dwelling made out of leaves and brushwood. He surrounds it with a double hedged fence using stakes that would later grow into trees. The growth of the stakes comes as a pleasant surprise to Crusoe who immediately recognizes the excellent shading and defensive barrier provided by the growing tree wall. Crusoe does not recognize the tree, though he refers to it as "osier-like wood". Upon further research into the vegetation of Tobago and other Caribbean islands, our group strongly believes that the tree species described would have closely resembled the Bursera Simaruba ("Gumbo-limbo"), which is frequently used as living fencing because of its rapid growth rate and because it is easily transplanted1. Crusoe later employs this fence technology for the outer wall and surrounding forest barrier around his sea-coast house.
The tree walls create a very secure dwelling but require a ladder to climb over the hedge. As time passed the trees grew and provided shade during the hot season. He eventually builds a tent as well and continues to furnish when he has extra time. He also creates another area for his animals. The following image shows the country house in it's early form, one year after Crusoe's arrival on the island:
The following image shows the country house after 4 years, once the stakes have grown into trees.
“Under this I had made me a squab, or couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me”
“Adjoining to this, I had my inclosures for my cattle, that is to say, my goats. As I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and inclose this ground, I was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest the goats should break through, that I never left off till, with infinite labour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was scarcely room to put a hand through between them. Afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, they made the inclosure strong like a wall, indeed, stronger than any wall.”
Size: The enclosure including the hedge grows out to 25 yards in diameter.
Timeline: Crusoe begins building the country house in August of the first year. He continues to make improvements throughout his stay on the island. The first version of his country house was made in approximately a month’s time.
Narrative: In the middle ages a cottage was often accompanied with a barn as well as a small plot of land. In the modern day, a cottage usually refers to a vacation home or a summer residence typically in a rural location.
Notes:
1. "Bursera simaruba," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bursera_simaruba (accessed January 21, 2010)
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