rebels
against his parents by going to sea. He is the sole survivor of a shipwreck and uses his wits to
retrieve everything he can from the doomed vessel before it sinks forever. By setting up stores
of gunpowder, utensils, sails, ropes, seeds, food, livestock, and other practical items, Crusoe
is able to survive alone. As time goes on, he cultivates more and more of the deserted island,
claiming it as his kingdom. Because of his industry and resourcefulness, he lives
well.
Later, he sees cannibals land in canoes on a beach on the island.
Fearful, he fires his gun and is able to save one of the natives. He renames him Friday and
makes him his servant while converting him to Christianity.
Crusoe is much
happier once he has a companion, and over 28 years turns to a renewed faith in God. He sees the
hand of divine providence in his being saved as well as blessed with the bounty of the island.
At the end of the novel, a passing ship saves Crusoe and Friday, taking them to
Europe.
The book has long captured the imagination of it audience. Rather
than a romance, which would show supernatural interventions such as fairies helping Crusoe, he
must survive entirely using his own wits and reason. Because he is a self-made man on the
island, he reflects the values of the rising English Protestant middle class, which celebrated
making it in life through their own efforts rather than inheriting wealth. Crusoe has in recent
years also been read as encapsulating the mindset of European colonialism.
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