Robinson Crusoe: A Synopsis

Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe, was published in 1719 and is widely considered to be the first modern novel in the English language. The book is a fictional autobiography of a castaway (the title character) partially inspired by the real life Alexander Selkirk. Crusoe spends 28 years on a remote tropical island off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean before being rescued. One can assume that the island Crusoe is stranded on is Tobago as he explicitly states that he believes he can see the island of Trinidad. This is also consistently reinforced through Crusoe's descriptions of the landscape, vegetation, and animals that he encounters. For example, he mentions the presence of wild cocoa trees; a plant species located on the island of Tobago.

"...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.

5 Steps to Civilization

Hunting and Food Gathering: This includes going in tribes and finding food, and finding a shelter that is adaptable to different environments. Some equipment that can be used at this stage are bows and arrows, and food baskets.

Relevance: Robinson Crusoe begins by finding a shelter in a tree then progresses but at first he is focusing on getting a shelter and some food to survive.

“As for food, I yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that I had seen two or three creatures like hares run out of the wood where I shot the fowl.”

Food Production:
At this stage animals are domesticated and agriculture begins. Once flexible shelter is tested, here is where the permanent home begins and farming takes place. The population may also increase. Some props include seeds and fenced animals.

Relevance: Crusoe starts to grow corn and grapes as a way of gathering food, and he also fences off a place to keep his goats.

“Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground, as well as I could, with my wooden spade, and, dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain.”



Surplus:
There is an overstock of supplies such as food or cattle. The excess is then put away for emergency or traded. The population continues growing.


Relevance: Crusoe stocks away corn and rice that he can save for periods when it is not the growing season.

“...with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of provision, especially my corn, some in the ear cut off short from the straw.”



Division of Labour:
Farming is not the main job and people spread out into other jobs such as craftsmanship. Skills are developed and trading takes place. Some props include tools, clay pots and trade products.

Relevance: Crusoe starts to learn crafts such as making pots, working on canoes/boats, making different garments out of goat fur/skin, and he slowly develops his way of living comfortably on the island.

“Chapter XXV.—Becomes A Potter, Miller, And Baker”



The Rise of Cities:
Population is at large and people are working as a community, establishing government and social structures. Cultures slowly develop and focus is on literature, technology, politics, religion and education.

Relevance: Crusoe finds Friday, teaches him to read and puts clothes on him. He tries to make a little civilization and once he rescues Friday's father and a Spaniard he begins to. He gives them living space and gets them to help him out.

"I worked to make this room, or cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse, or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar."

“During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind. I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God.”



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Political Implications of the Counterculture Proposed by Island Adaptations

As an isolated self-dependent functioning unit that is legally part of China but is unconstitutionally ignored by them, the denizens of this highly dense urban centre known as the Kowloon Walled City lived in an enclave of Hong Kong. Abandoned by civilization, the residents of the Kowloon Walled City were forced to create their own civilization from the scraps and leftovers of the urban decay of the surrounding socioeconomic fabric. In a similar fashion, Crusoe was physically expelled from the European Civilization he had been accustomed to his whole life and was forced to deal with the implications of living in his colonial Christian converter mindset as a savage. Literally with only the scraps of his past life, he assembled the wreckage of his ship and built himself more than just a humble abode in his own interpretation of a personal utopia.

In this highly sociological manner, both the Kowloon Walled City and Robinson Crusoe could be said to represent a kind of counterculture movement against the established status quo also known as the dialectic of enlightenment. The two distinct but very similar island adaptations reached their climax but as is the case with most opposition to dominant culture, the fledgling civilization crumbled under the weight of the establishment of hierarchy. Both civilizations also met their demise with the introduction of an invasive isolated force, completely separate from the local biome it encountered. When Hong Kong was returned to the Chinese, the first act of the Communist regime was to show their dominance over a society that run effectively without any form of centralized government by violently demolishing this fragile but important element of human culture. Violently extinguishing the spark of freedom. When a European ship arrived off Crusoe’s “Island of Despair,” he immediately abandoned his utopia. Both civilizations essentially failed, seizing to become elements of unique human existence and instead fell into the decline of mediocrity.