Robinson Crusoe Is Admirable

If you were stranded on an island alone, what actions would you take to survive and maintain your sanity? Would your actions be deemed admirable? This predicament faced Robinson Crusoe in the novel appropriately titled, Robinson Crusoe. Set in the mid to late 17th century, Robinson Crusoe, is an epistolary novel following the early life of the main character Robinson Crusoe. What begins as an account of the voyages and business ventures of a rebellious, young man, soon transforms into a twenty-eight year struggle for survival when Crusoe is stranded on a deserted island. While it is unanimously agreed that Crusoe survived his stay on the island, a divergence in opinion occurs when asked whether he was an admirable man by the end of the book. Some readers find his actions and character admirable, while others do not.

A deeper understanding of the book clearly reveals that despite his flaws, Robinson Crusoe was admirable. Three obvious and commendable reasons for this are the facts that he kindled a

Not only did Crusoe not fall victim to the hardships of nature and the cannibals, he made two structurally sound homes, one he called his summer home, and the other his castle. He also tamed some goats, taught his pet parrot, Polly, to say a handful of sentences, built a canoe, a wall, and a tobacco pipe, and planted a highly successful garden with a variety of grains and vegetables to keep him fed. Crusoe did not merely survive for twenty-eight years, he thrived for twenty-eight years. He affectionately said while looking back at his island from afar, “Now I looked back upon my desolate, solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again,” (Defoe 64). Crusoe made the best of his situation through hard work and perseverance, which in and of itself are very admirable