Robinson Crusoe Essay, Research Paper

Robinson was a young man of 18 and had a dream to be a sailor. He asked his father for permission. His father thought that he should stay home and take over the family business or study law. Robinson asked his father again to let him have just one sail. His father disapproved once more. One afternoon a shipped sailed in from the harbor. The captain of the ship was one of Crusoe’s friend’s, father. The captain invited Crusoe on a voyage to the English coast and he couldn’t resist. Crusoe ran away. He was very seasick. Soon after he set off on his second voyage. Here he would travel to the coast of Africa. He learned how to trade with the natives. On one of his voyages he was ship wrecked and picked up by another boat. The captain owned a plantation. Soon after this Crusoe bought his own plantation.

When other plantation owners needed slaves to work their farms they asked Crusoe to sail to Africa. Crusoe agreed and set sail. On the way there they ran into many storms. Three men were killed very soon. The twelfth day was a hard one. The biggest storm hit. Its waves were giant. The ship was in very bad shape and Crusoe had to abandon it. He and the other sailors loaded into the small boat and paddled to land. All of the sudden a titanic wave crashed onto the boat. It drowned everyone but Crusoe. He was lucky to be alive. When he got the strength to walk again he found himself a safe place to sleep for the night, which was between to limbs a big tree.

When he awoke the next morning he went he decided to salvage some stuff from the boat. There were so many things on the ship he had to build a raft to carry them back to land. He found carpentry tools, artillery, clothes, nails, and food. When he was on his way back a current started to pull him away from the place were he had landed. It was a creek. It pulled him to a perfect spot to unload his stuff. Crusoe found a great place to build a fort were he could see if any ships came and to protect him from any other sorts wild of beasts. Soon he learned that he should keep a calendar. He stood up a post in the sand. Every day he put a notch in the wood.

Crusoe was a very skillful man. On the island he learned how to grow corn. Then how to turn the corn he made into bread. He also discovered grapes and other nutritional plants. He also learned how to make chairs, tables and shelves for his cave. During the long and rainy days he learned ho to weave baskets. Then how to hunt. Finally he found a parrot and taught it how to say “Robin Crusoe.”

One day he saw a distant island on top of a tall cliff. So he decided to build a canoe to travel to it. It took him almost a year to build a canoe. When he finally got through with it, it was too big to drag to the river. So he learned his lesson. He then turned his attention to clothing. The ones he had gotten four years ago began to rot and tear. He began to learn to make soft vests and pants out of goat skin. After that he made a big umbrella out of the skin to protect him from the sunrays. It took him many tries to make it work right. Since Crusoe had found out how to breed his goats he had a little extra time and planed a trip to travel around the island. When he was finished he pushed out into the water. When he reached a distant point he ran into a strong current. It pulled him way around to the other side of the island. He then decided to walk home.

Crusoe wanted to sail around the island again and made his way down to the shore. This is when he found a very gruesome sight. He saw a footprint on the sand. Astonished he ran back to the fortress. He was so scared of being eaten that he built another wall and put guns through them. He didn’t leave his fortress for a while. He started having thoughts about the cannibals. Like “Why should I kill them and what if they eat me while I’m asleep?” he was very scared. Then one day he looked down from his fortress and saw smoke. He climbed to the top of a hill and looked through his spyglass. He saw nine savages. He was very scared. He thought that if he shot them that more would come to kill him. So he swore the next time savages came he would.

For the next year Crusoe thought about nothing but escaping from the island. He started having the same dream over and over again too. He dreamt of a savage escaping from his natives and Crusoe would rescue him. This man he would rescue would be the answer to his prayers of escaping. Soon after these dreams a group of savages came to the island. With them they had two prisoners. Crusoe felt his dream coming true. He hurried to the dunes and carried with him his guns. He hid for a while when all-of-the sudden one of the prisoners broke loose. The other savages only sent two men after him. Crusoe shot both of them and called to the run-away. They met and ran to his fortress.

For the next years he taught his friend, Friday, English. Friday told Crusoe of his people and how glad they would be of him. They would learn Crusoe’s ways and not eat people any more. Crusoe thought about it for a while and decided that he would build another boat to go to Friday’s island and maybe from there escape. When they were finished building the boat they had to harvest crops. Finally when everything was ready to go more savages arrived at the island. With them they had three prisoners and one looked English. So Friday and Robinson set out to rescue them. They did end up rescuing the other men and killing every one of the savages. The man was really a Spaniard, the other was killed, and the other was Friday’s father.

So now the four men decide that they should send Friday’s father and the Spaniard to the mainland. So for six months they gathered food and prepared for the voyage. When they left a big ship arrived. It belonged to the English men but Crusoe had his doubts. Sure enough it was but the captain was being held hostage. Crusoe planned away to get him free and did. Then they captured a bunch of the bad sailors and some joined his side. They made a planed to get the ship back. When Crusoe conquered this feat he wanted to sail for home. The captain gave Crusoe the boat and he did so.

When Crusoe arrived home he found that his mother and father was dead. But he did still have his plantation and some nephews to take care of. One of his nephews wanted to study law, the other wanted to be a sailor and travel the world. So another Crusoe was born and Robinson Crusoe got to go through 28 years on island as a Governor.