Text commentary. Enrique Fuertes Capdevila
Daniel Defoe's Chapter I from Robinson Crusoe
Resume of the chapter
Robinson is a boy that was born in 1632, in New York, he is the youngest son of his family, and
has two brothers, one of them died in the war, and if we talk about the second one, he doesn´t
know anything about him. His father raised and educated him with the idea that he studied
something related to laws, but our main character had an adventurous spirit that pushed him away
from that idea, Robinson wanted to see the sea and dedicate his life to being adventurous and
exploring the world. After this presentation, Robinson has an important talk with his dad about
life, wealth, and the most enjoyable lifestyle (we will comment on this conversation deeper later).
Around a year after that talk, he received a proposal from a friend about going to London by boat
on his father´s ship, and without saying a word to his family, he accepted it, and on the 1st of
September 1951, the travel began, and its consequences will be overwhelming. During the travel,
he almost died, but he saved his life and they arrived to land, but his traveling spirit isn’t satisfied
and he decides to do another travel.
Which will be the destiny of the travel?
Analysis and more detailed commentary on the chapter
Even if this chapter wasn’t really long, we can find some interesting moments and parts that we
will comment deeper because they are really interesting and you can do and have a great reflection
about them, but let´s start from the beginning, the first part that I would like to remark is when
we get to know that his father wanted Robinson to study laws, this is a common situation that
keeps happening 300 years after the publication of the novel, which is when fathers want their
children to study whatever they want and they unconsciously or consciously (depending on the
fathers) manipulate their children, giving them a huge pressure over their future, but in this case,
the case of Robinson, we have an 18-year-old boy that wants to explore the world and see the sea
by himself, which is understandable if we think about the historical context of the age of the novel,
which is around the 1700s, but if we think about Robinson´s father, is comprehensible that he
wants his child to live a normal life, and more if we think about how one of his sons had a similar
situation, but instead of wanting to be an explorer, the other son wanted to go to the war, and he
got to go to the Low Country Wars that he “loved”, and as we can read during the chapter, he got
killed in the war, so that makes us understand the point of Robinson´s father, since he doesn’t
want to lose another son, and Robinson´s dream is also a dangerous one, where he can die if he
has problems traveling, for example, and I think that this is an interesting point of the story.
The next thing that I will comment on also belongs to the relationship and conversation between
Robinson and his father, but when they talk about wealth, the enjoyment of life and the best point
to be between being a slave and a king, which seemed very interesting to me. His father mentions
that he wants his son to live what he calls a normal life, which would be being in the middle
between having to be a slave with almost 0 resources and money and being a king that has
experienced luxury since he was born, he made a point that I agree with, which is that if you have
always had whatever you wanted, you wouldn’t appreciate those things, because that “easy”
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lifestyle of being born with everything has a person who hasn’t fought for almost anything, like
the case of a king, a king is on the best point in terms of having everything, but is the one who
has suffered less to get where he is, and he cannot see the value of what he has, because he hasn’t
been in the bottom, and nothing tastes better than when you achieve something that you have
always desired after a lot of hard work, suffering and pain.
On the other hand, we have the slave, who has the worst lifestyle possible, and his life consists of
being exploited for work, for getting a small food, without any flavour, he suffers too much and
doesn’t get good things, so that’s horrible, and at the end, we have the best option according to
Robinson´s father, which is being an average person that learns through every day’s experience
and has a peaceful pass through the world where they taste some of the sweet things of life but
without the work of the slave and without the perspective of the king, who wouldn’t appreciate
the sweet things that he mentions, and I agree with that being a relaxing life, but for some people
that’s not enough, there are way more ambitious people whose dreams and desires are way bigger
than being just one more of us, and I truly believe that that kind of people is necessary in the
world because they make us advance as a society and even as a race, because some of them, the
ones who get their dreams (even if they are not a lot of people who achieve their dreams) have
amazing consequences for the human race. But at the end of the day, that lifestyle would be
accepted by more people than we would expect, just think about homeless, poor, and sad people,
for that people, the “being an average person” lifestyle would be their biggest dream. Finishing
with this point, I think that following and having dreams and setting goals for yourself is healthy
because I believe that having ambitions and goals it´s really important, no matter what they are
about (assuming that you don’t desire to be a killer or something like that), they can be related to
love, sport, money, science medicine, etc, dreams are one of the most individual things that we,
humans, have, because even if the final goal is similar, everyone designs his own path to achieve
them, and dreams and goals can make you a better hard worker at the end of the day.
The next that I consider important is the different stages of the main character during the trip, at
the beginning, he is completely terrified when the storm begins and he remembers his family and
mentions one of the key points of this part of the chapter, which is when he remembers God and
religion, I believe that this is remarkable because a lot of people see God and religion as a pillar
of their lives, and it´s curious how with the course of the years, the concept of religion has changed
drastically if we compare it to the concept and the importance that a person would give to this
topic, and even if you believe or not in God, religion (no matter the religion), we have to accept
that for some people is a huge support that keeps them fighting for what they want or if they are
having a bad streak, which I believe that is positive for any individual, the thing is that some
people find this pillar or support in religion and some people find it by another way unrelated to
religion, in Robinson´s case, God is truly important for him and he always remembers God during
his life. Another thing that happens during the trip is that he regrets a bit taking the decision of
traveling, especially at the beginning of it, when he is shocked by what he thinks that he is a huge
storm, apart from God, he remembers his father and his decision, and it´s interesting how we think
about the most important people that we have or know when we are suffering or we are about to
die, I believe that it´s one of the most effective ways of knowing who are the most important
people for each one of us and how we think about our loved ones when we are in our hardest
moments. That storm leads us to when he talks with a seaman and he tells Robinson that it wasn’t
a huge storm, which shocked Robinson, but after that big scare, he felt the calm of the sea and
thought that the rest of the voyage would be a peaceful time, but when the strongest storm arrives,
once again he thinks about how good was his life at Hull, his father, etc, remarking once more
what I have just mentioned. In the end, Robinson´s determination when he decided to do another
voyage shocked me, especially because his first trip didn’t go very well.
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My personal thoughts and opinion on this fragment
From my own experience, reading this chapter of Robinson Crusoe has been a really good
experience in every term, as far as I´m concerned, even if this chapter is short, it can make you
think about what you have just read, and having a catchy story, this chapter touches some
interesting topics like religion, the traditions between families, and the clash between your own
dreams and what would be the normal thing for you, this last one viewed from 2 different points
of view, the father who had already lost a child because of his child following his dreams, and the
thirst for adventure of another of his sons, making the father remember what happened before,
and the desperation and thoughts when you are in a very difficult situation. Undoubtedly, reading
it has been a pleasure and once I have some free time, I will give the whole book a try.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
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