Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is one of the oldest novels in the history of literature. Written in the year 1719, the book depicts various moral themes by the author Daniel Defoe. The story talks about a young man who goes against the wishes of his parents and heads to the direction of the seas to seek adventure.  According to the novel analysis, the young man lived on an island for approximately 28 years.  Crusoe is the narrator of the novel. The book, Robinson Crusoe depicts various themes that the author uses to moralize his own life. As the audience, we can also learn a lot from these themes and even be able to moralize our own life. The book, in other words, provides a story that many young people can learn from in their own adulthood life (Rogers, Pat, n.d. 2014).  One of the themes that are depicted in the book is the theme of Christianity. The author depicts an aspect of Christianity throughout the story. Hence this literature analysis seeks to analyses how the narrator moralizes his own life through the theme of Christianity.

Christianity is one of the theme depicted in the story, “Robinson Crusoe.”  In the story, the main character Crusoe, depends on God, the almighty creator, throughout his life. He depends on God to take care of him. The respect his accords God is commendable. It is clear from the story that he is afraid of God’s Punishment for abandoning his family, although he seems to agree that it is the best decision to take.  From the look of things, Crusoe finds that his life in God is of the best quality. His life seems to be improving as his faith, and trust in God becomes stronger. As a result of such a state of life, Crusoe’s life is motivated, and he has a reason and purpose to continue living.  Through the trust he has placed on Almighty God, he realizes that God has kept in this world for a reason. At first, he thought he was alone in the world. But when he gets a flashback of what happened during the sinking of their ship, yet they survived, and he realizes that God is there for him (Korichi, Chahba, n.d. 2016).

Crusoe’s faith in God is displayed in various instances in the story. For instance, while they are sailing with their ship, he tries to encourage the captain of their ship to take any measures to save the ship. The captain seems to be afraid, but Crusoe’s faith is strong. He even questions the captain and asks him … “is my belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save your life.” In This Case, he seems to question whether the captain has faith in God or not (Owens, W. R. “Defoe, pg. 51. 2013).

Not only does Crusoe keep his faith to himself, but he also spreads the message to others. He takes the step of sharing the message of trusting and placing your life to God to other people. He believes that the message is meant for everyone person.  Other people need to see the goodness in trusting in God. In one of the chapters, chapter 15, Crusoe is seen teaching his faith and Christian beliefs to Friday. Friday is an easy person to teach since he understands and clings to the word as fast as possible.  As time goes by, Friday turns into becoming a devoted Christian follower.  The magnitude of his understanding is seen when Friday starts to ask questions that are hard for Crusoe to understand and even answer.  Through such questions, Friday seems to become a better and more devoted Christianity.

Although the story depicts Robinson’s literal, physical journey, the book also centers metaphorical, spiritual journey to the religion of Christianity, as the story progresses, the importance of Christianity to Robinson is depicted. At the beginning of the story, Robinson is not concerned more about Christianity.  Later on, when he becomes a more devoted Christian, he looks at the flashback of that life and realizes that it was the wrong way. As said earlier, he is afraid of God’s punishment for abandoning his family. He remembers the warning given to him by his father when he was leaving for his journey to the other side. His father had warned him that God will not bless him when he goes to the sea and leaves his family behind (Rogers, Pat, n.d., 2014).  When the storm hits their ship, he is afraid that that is the punishment his father meant.

At some part of the story, he realizes the need to repent for his sins.  This act is prompted by the dream he gets involving a one night of a strange figure pushing to repent. It is one of the reasons that contribute to forcing him to turn to Christianity and starts studying the bible with determination.  Robinson’s relationship with God in his newfound Christianity is strong, positive, and full of benefits.  His relationship with God, for instance, is commendable. He is continuously in conversation with God through prayers. Through such a form of conversation with God, he feels that he is not alone on the island. Although life, as usual, has many challenges or its twists and turns, Christianity offers Crusoe with the discipline and determination to fight.  He looks backs at the life had lived before realizing the importance of Jesus in life and understands the sins he has committed. Through repentance, he believes God has forgiven him, and his life has changed. The forgiveness he believes comes from the survival of the storm, where God saves him from drowning and ending up to live on the island.

Robinson Crusoe’s relationship with God is further depicted to be strong in various ways. For instance, he comes to forecast many things that other people cannot see. He sees various unpredictable natural calamities such as storms, hurricanes, and even earthquakes that destroy his island. He perceives these incidents as signs from God or tools that depict his divine agency.   As we can see from the story, Christianity is one of the main tools used by Robinson Crusoe to moralize his life. His life changes completely through the incorporation of Christian moral values. He is not the same kind of person he was earlier.  Furthermore, he shows the idea of divine providence in God (Rogers, Pat, n.d. 2013). He assures the reader that God brings everything we expect in the future.

There is a lot we can learn from Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe uses Christianity to moralize his own life.  In our current society, there is also a step we can take to moralize our life differently. There are several religions, and people believe in it. Each religion is founded on specific moral values. All of us can do as Christianity suggests in terms of morality. The only way we can do it differently is through living according to our specific religious, moral requirements. The majority of the religion we practice is founded on ethical, moral values. We also ought to use Christianity to discover the purpose we are meant to do in our life. Religion indeed helps us in realizing our purpose in life, as depicted in the story, “Robinson Crusoe.”