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”
No comments:
Post a Comment