Over the course of his adventures, Robinson Crusoe becomes much more mature and more responsible in his interactions with the world around him.
At first, he's a bit of a young tearaway, heading out into the world against his father's wishes to make himself a fortune. In his single-minded obsession with wealth, Crusoe shows himself utterly indifferent to morality. He happily gets himself involved in the slave trade, despite the enormous suffering it brings to others. Though a throughly immoral trade, it also happens to be a very financially lucrative one—hence Crusoe's involvement with it. Even after a brief firsthand experience of life as a slave when his ship is taken over by pirates and he's enslaved by a Moor, he still remains committed to making money out of this evil trade.
Crusoe is so obsessed with his various business enterprises that he forgets all about God. He will continue to do so until long after he's shipwrecked on a desert island. Then, thanks to a sudden religious conversion, he will come to see the error of his ways. Realizing his arrogance in neglecting to praise God for his safe deliverance after the shipwreck, he vows to make amends and immediately gets down on his hands and knees and gives thanks to the Almighty.
This dramatic conversion changes Crusoe's whole character, precipitating his transition from selfishness and isolation to self-actualization and social reintegration by way of a renewed commitment to Protestant Christianity.
Defoe is particularly interesting in his tracing of Robinson Crusoe's moral development over his long stay on the island. Crusoe starts out an unbeliever, but as he survives against all the odds on the deserted island he comes to see the hand of providence in his life.
At first, he leaves on his shipboard adventure without telling his parents. He starts off on the wrong foot:
without asking God's Blessing, or my Father's, without any Consideration of Circumstances or Consequences and in an ill Hour, God knows.
His involvement in the shipwreck, by implication, is his punishment for heading out recklessly on his own. In fact, his father had warned him of such consequences.
Once on the island, Crusoe keeps a journal and, being alone, has plenty of time to reflect on what has happened to him and to engage in self-examination and examination of conscience, both important aspects of Protestantism. At first, he blames God for his situation. He expects to die soon and wonders what sense it makes for God to give people life only to make them suffer so:
I had great Reason to consider it as a Determination of Heaven, that in this desolate Place, and in this desolate Manner I should end my life; the Tears would run plentifully down my Face when I made these Reflections, and sometimes I would expostulate with my self, Why Providence should thus completely ruine its Creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable, so without Help abandon'd, so entirely depress'd, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a Life.
Crusoe, however, finds Bibles on the abandoned ship and as he reads one, begins to believe that it was God's plan for his redemption that brought him to this island. Finally, he becomes a complete convert to Christianity and decides that moral redemption from the mental anguish brought on by sin is more important than relief from physical sufferings. His moral regeneration is complete when he decides that forgiveness of sins is more important than being rescued from his island home:
Now I look'd back upon my past Life with such Horrour, and my Sins appear'd so dreadful, that my Soul sought nothing of God, but Deliverance from he Load of Guilt that bore down all my Comfort: As for my solitary Life it was nothing; I did not so much as pray to be deliver'd from it, or think of it; It was all of no Consideration in Comparison to this: And I add this Part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true Sense of things, they will find Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing, than Deliverance from Affliction.
Crusoe, having developed into a mature Christian due to his solitude and trials, is able to convert Friday to Christianity. Crusoe's moral change and his development of a relationship with God is a crucial aspect of the novel.
In the book Robinson Crusoe, the character of Crusoe develops through the necessity of his finding ways to survive on the island. He first uses his skills and evident knowledge of some survival techniques to find shelter for himself and security from any possible predators. Crusoe's first night is spent in the trees, and after that, he painstakingly builds a shelter against a high cliff, even carving out more room within it over time. Crusoe next revisits the stranded ship he arrived on and scavenges supplies and parts of the ship after constructing a raft for this purpose. He finishes saving the needed supplies just before the ship is carried off by a storm.
Crusoe wards off what could have been impending insanity by keeping himself busy with finding ways to survive. His character develops further as he fences in and domesticates a goat. His evolving friendship with his found friend, Friday, adds depth to his character as the two learn to communicate and cooperate.
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