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Teachers' Resource Web Study Questions on Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe 1. What is Robinson's status as a Christian? Do you see him as an opportunist, electing to turn to God sporadically when it will profit him or as one who grows increasingly more devout over the course of the novel? Consider his mention of Fate, Providence, and God in his account of these thirty years of his life. Which of the three shows up the most frequently, which of the three does he end with? Also you might want to keep in mind the ease with which he parts or sells friends and possessions, kills his pets, and scavenges dead bodies (189). 2. In the course of his thirty year stay, Crusoe, in essence, enacts all the steps in the rise of civilization of man. He literally moves from reinventing basic objects like the stone to sharpen his tools to accomplishing complicated tasks of production such as the baking of bread and the brewing of beer. Does this condensed history of humanity differ in principle from the large scale one, and is the result the same? In other words, consider the purpose of Defoe's replication of civilization, and possibly England, in miniature in this novel. Does it serve to celebrate, critique, or otherwise humanity? 3. In an enactment of the classic tension between Christianity and capitalism, Robinson Crusoe repeatedly experiences and describes for us a cycle of resignation to God, human ambition to escape or improve his situation, followed by disaster and then despair to which he responds by once again resolving himself to resign himself to God. Does Crusoe ever fully resign himself to his situation? How are we to understand his effort, for instance, to leave the island (125-6)? Is Crusoe defying God's will? Similarly, in his perception of himself as lord of the island, master, etc., is Crusoe's human ambition getting the better of his Christian humility? 4. How do gender and sexuality operate in this book? Consider Crusoe's stock and pets which, despite being all female when originally described, can reproduce. Further, how are we to see Friday in terms of gender and sexuality—see the description of his behavior and body (203-6)? Finally does Crusoe exhibit any desire in terms of sex or love? 5. How are we to understand the excess of this book: the excess of goods, possessions, money, signs? Further how does this proliferation of supply relate to cannibalism and the principle of conspicuous, even horrifically graphic, consumption? Consider Crusoe's varied responses to cannibalism—from physical revulsion as evidenced by his vomiting (165) to an intellectual justification of it (171). 6. What happens when Robinson runs out of things to do (170 and on), a situation that is only accelerated with the arrival of Friday who assumes many of the time consuming tasks with which Crusoe busies himself? How does Robinson's surplus of free time and reaction to it reflect on capitalism and its eventual trajectory? See pages 170, 176, and 196 in particular. 7. How are we to understand Crusoe's amazingly accurate dream foretelling the events leading to the arrival/discovery of Friday? Further, compare the description of Friday (205-6) to that of Oronooko and Crusoe's treatment of Friday (213) to Behn's of Oronooko. How are they different, how are they alike; is one more real or romantic than the other? And what are we to understand from this later fantasy of an ever loving and obedient slave, and what changes in attitudes toward others do we see in the example of Friday? 8. Why is Robinson so happy to be left alone, without hope of rescue on a desert island, as evidenced on page 89 when having survived the wreck, he claims to have experienced a "kind of Extasie ... as I may say, Being Glad to Be Alive?" Even if he doesn't want to die, shouldn't he at least be unhappy or somewhat mournful about the deaths of the other members of the crew? In fact, at one point, he didn't believe that God spared his life for a purpose, so why is he happy having to live a meaningful existence alone? 9. What is the connection between Crusoe's willed separation from his family and his fated isolation on the island? If the novel is indeed a spiritual text, then what comment is this isolation on the island making on his behavior toward his family? |