İNGİLİZ/AMERİKAN EDEBİYATI I

During his third year on the island Robinson is busy with his rice and corn, which he tries to preserve against several attacks by goats and fowls, but he finally makes his harvest and spends the next six months to produce tools that he would help him turn his corn into bread. he works on making pots for himself for cooking, and succeeds in making pots by baking the shaped mixture of clay and sand in the fire. After many efforts, Robinson is able to cook bread for himself in the oven he has built.

Taking his strength from his religious devotion to God, he deems the island as his new home.  Robinson’s inclination towards superior stations of life manifests itself with his deeming himself the king and the lord of the island. Once he feels that there are no real outside dangers to his existence on the island and that there are no rivals, he feels in full possession of the island. The only thing that Robinson seems to be really in need of is human company. For instance, when he hears his name pronounced by the parrot he has tamed, he is overjoyed. He does not idly wait someone to rescue him, but tries to create opportunities to save his own life.

Robinson’s discovering the wreck of the Spanish ship is very important for him because for the first time in twenty-three years on the island he feels terribly in need of company. This time he is not scared as he was when he saw the footprint. This point is extremely important in that the ship that he sees is at a safe distance and no one has set foot on what he calls his own land.

After the arrival of the Spanish Captain and Friday’s father the life on the island changes. Robinson now does not need to work on his plantation as he used to before, and he makes a division of labour among the new inhabitants which he calls his subjects. The people whose lives he saved become naturally inferior to him, but he makes sure that there is a class distinction among them as well.

The last part of the novel is important in portraying human relations which have been absent from most of the novel.

When the rainy season passes, Robinson decides to finish his preparations for the voyage. One day when he sends Friday to the shore to find a tortoise, Friday comes back in a very frightened state upon discovering three canoes on the shore with twenty one savages and three captives. The captives are Europeans and although Robinson questions himself of the conduct, he decides to save the victims by killing the cannibals. Friday and Robinson attack the cannibals and save the Spanish man. The three men fight the cannibals and kill most of them, but four of the cannibals manage to escape in a canoe Robinson and Friday decide to chase them so that the escapees would not bring other cannibals back for revenge. When on the canoe, Robinson and Friday discover another captive who happens to be Friday’s father.

When securing the ship from the rebels, Robinson for the first time thanks another human being for saving his life, and he is the English captain. It is not a coincidence that the one who saves Robinson’s life is an English man. For instance, Robinson has not thanked the Spanish captain nor did he Friday although both of them served Robinson well.

Following a long voyage Robinson arrives England after thirty five years’ absence. He finds the widow to whom he entrusted his money before leaving England and promises to help her when he has the opportunity. Then, he goes to Yorkshire, where he discovers that almost all his family have died and the remaining members of the family thought he was dead.

Having been tired of sea journeys and misfortunes, Robinson decides to go to England by land. The Portuguese Captain finds some other merchants to accompany him in his journey. Friday also accompanies him during all this process. On the way, all of a sudden, they hear the cries of the guide upon which Friday hastens to help him. Two wolves have attacked the guide, and Friday kills the wolves. However, the shots have alarmed the forest and a bear attacks Friday who in deed provokes the bear. Friday tricks the bear to climb up a tree and makes him come down after which he kills the bear. Robinson and others are amused by the show.

One detail he adds in his journal is about the time when he is flooded with thoughts of religion upon discovering a type of barley and rice that is growing up on the island, although he has not cultivated any. However, he reports that he forgets about the spiritual enlightenment very quickly

Because there is a scarcity of ink, Robinson reports that from this time on he will not give a daily account of his experiences, but will write just about the most important things.

He also teaches his parrot to speak its own name: POLL

On the sixth of November in his sixth year on the island, Robinson sets sail with his small boat to make a tour around his island. He goes to the east of the island but is soon caught into an eddy that carries him a little away from the island. He has to spend about four days trying to survive.

He spends the next three months to build a hedge and tames several goats and by the end of four years, his flock grows into forty-three including the ones he killed to eat. He also learns to milk them and manages to produce butter and cheese. He is thankful for the abundance of food and is pleased that he has his own subjects (the animals) that he would rule as he wishes. He calls his dog and the two cats his family, and the parrot his servant.

In the morning he searches the place once more, but he cannot find a sign of neither any other man nor a vessel that might have brought the man. He concludes that the footprint belongs to one of the savages living on the other island. He is terribly scared that the savages would take all his goats and destroy his cornfields and resolves to produce more corn to secure his future.

For about two or three months he makes visits to the hill to catch a boat approaching the island, but all his observations are fruitless, and he reconsiders his plan and finally comes to the conclusion that he has no authority to judge and punish the cannibals.

Soon, Robinson names the savage Friday because he saved the life of the savage on a Friday. Moreover, he teaches him to speak. The first word that he teaches Friday is “Master” which he uses as his name.

Following a long voyage Robinson arrives England after thirty five years’ absence. He finds the widow to whom he entrusted his money before leaving England and promises to help her when he has the opportunity. Then, he goes to Yorkshire, where he discovers that almost all his family have died and the remaining members of the family thought he was dead.

When Robinson finally arrives England, he sends several letters to Lisbon to sell his plantations in Brazil, and sets himself up as a new man in England taking two of his nephews into his care, marrying and having three children of his own in seven years’ time. During this period, it is the widow that prevents him from going abroad, but when his wife dies, he once more sets sail as a trader to East Indies.