Introduction
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a narrative full of anxiety by Daniel Defoe. The thrilling story is about the life of Crusoe, the son of an English Marchant, who has to make a critical decision about his life because every action he takes defines his fate. According to his father’s advice, staying home and building a middle-class life where he suffers less from poverty or too much wealth is essential.
However, deviant Crusoe embarks on a life-threatening journey to Africa to hunt enslaved people. His ships wrecked, forcing him to live on an island for years before returning home. Crusoe speaks with much anxiety because of the dangers ahead of his life decisions. This paper analyzes two passages from the novel regarding possible explanations of the narrative tension involved. In the two selected passages, Crusoe’s narrative expresses fear of defying a father’s advice and the unknown.
The Fear of Defying a Father’s Advice
The first passage from pages 2 and 3 reveals that the narrator is nervous about making a wrong decision, which would ruin his life. Crusoe narrates how his father gave him terrifying advice with which he would model his life. The father, an English Merchant who lived a middle-class life, advises his son to build a similar life to avoid the hardships of life. He says, “that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and great” (Defoe 2). Crusoe’s father warns him not to envy or misinterpret wealth for happiness because the wealthy kings wish to be born into a less affluent family. It is also unwise to build a life on the lower side of life because he would not survive the adversities of such life.
The father warns that the calamities of life are shared among the lower and upper parts of humankind, but the middle-level experiences fewer disasters. The intermediate-level life is better because it is not subjected to uneasiness and many distempers based on luxury, extravagances, and vicious living or “by hard labor, want of necessities, and mean or insufficient diet” (Defoe 3). Crusoe’s father says that people in the lower or upper parts of society choose to make themselves disciples by attracting the natural consequences of their way of living.
Consequently, Crusoe should decide to settle in the middle by remaining home and enjoying what his father can provide. Crusoe reveals on page two that the choice of life influenced his father’s advice to the protagonist. The narrator says that his father had already noted his design of life, which was not towards the upper life, and feared the consequences involved. Crusoe grows more nervous after learning that his brother chose the lower life and perished in an exchange with the army.
The narrative is filled with anxiety and fear of choosing the lower side, where the protagonist would die like his brother, and have to select the upper life despite his father’s warning. Upon telling his story, Crusoe knows that he has already made a poor decision by pursuing more wealth than he did in his middle years. He is terrified of revealing his chosen model of life, which would confirm to the readers that he did pick the wrong path. From the perspective of a son, Crusoe is also afraid of looking like a nonconformist son who, despite having been warned against the upper life, went ahead and resulted in the exact adversities he would expect.
Fear of the Unknown
The second passage from pages 43 to 46 shows Crusoe’s anxiety after surviving a shipwreck. When the narrator and his friends embark on a journey to Africa, their shipwrecks leave Crusoe as the sole survivor. Now, on the shore of a sea, Crusoe is afraid of the unknown, which could come from the nearby jungle. He says, “Neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by wild beasts” (Defoe 43).
Crusoe fears the jungle’s dangers, including hunger and wild animals. The narrator has lost everything except a knife, a tobacco pipe, and a box. In other words, he has no way of defending himself from the possible dangers of the jungle. Crusoe imagines what would become of him when the beasts come out to find their prey at night. This high level of anguish fills the narration with emotions of anxiety.
Crusoe and his colleagues had stable plans for their journey to Africa, but he had no plan moving forward upon their demise. Crusoe and his team were looking forward to finding enslaved people from Africa and forcing them to England. However, Crusoe is confused when his journey suddenly stops, and he lacks an alternative plan.
First, the narrator is remorseful of his friends’ deaths, and second, he has to start looking for ways to survive. His mind has many conflicting thoughts but finally settles on a plan to sit under a thick bush until the next day. The idea of sitting in the bush, aware of all possible dangers, is enough to make Crusoe anxious. As he sits overnight waiting for the next day, Crusoe looks forward to planning how he should die. Preparing to die may seem less severe to a reader, but it is nerve-wracking to the narrator.
The following day, Crusoe has to arrange to live on the shore without knowing how long it will last. The uncertainty of whether or not he will find rescue, yet with no assurance of his safety in the meantime, is devastating. After waking up in clear weather and mind, Crusoe is surprised that the ship has been moved from the shore. The sea waves had driven the ship into the water and driven it away from the shore where Crusoe was. The presence of craft in the water gives the narrator another difficult task of navigating the water to explore the ship.
Having survived drowning when their ship was wrecked, entering the water is not the most exciting exercise for the protagonist. However, he has no choice but to swim through the sea toward the ship. In the ship, the narrator faces several obstacles because it is halfway sunk and needs to explore all parts to find something on which to rely. Crusoe must take the least time possible on the ship because he has to build a shelter before the down and poor weather sets in.
In the afternoon, Crusoe’s grief is renewed after learning of the calm weather and that if they had continued moving with the ship, they would have survived. Having to relive the devastating moment of losing all his friends is extreme. Crusoe is still stuck with his friends alive and probably wandering in the jungle together. He is also anxious about whether he made the right decision and what would become of him in the wilderness. Therefore, the state of living an unpredictable life is nerve-wracking for the narrator, hence the anxiety.
Conclusion
The two selected passages of Crusoe reveal narrative anxiety based on two fears: one for defying his father’s advice and the other for the unknown. From the narration, the protagonist has significant respect for his father and, as a son, would not wish to defy his wishes. However, Crusoe builds his life differently as an adult capable of making personal decisions.
The narrator does not wish to sit at home like his father advised, but wants to explore what life offers. In doing so, Crusoe faces life-threatening dangers, including living alone on the seashore. Having lost his travel friends, Crusoe has to develop a survival plan, considering all the adversities of being in the bush full of animals.
At this point, the father’s son has to think whether he will perish like his brother, survive, or make it to the upper level of life without regrets. The two passages represent many instances through which Crusoe’s narrative is built with anxiety. Crusoe indicates the apparent truth about being afraid of the possible dangers of life, and no matter how prepared humans are, they may not successfully overcome them.
Work Cited
Defoe, Daniel. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Edited by Edwin J. Bretts, Kelly & CO., 1925.