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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This classic man-versus-nature castaway novel has been hugely influential, but it's pretty rough for a modern reader. 300 years after its initial publication the plot feels threadbare and glacially slow, with little to distract from the author/narrator's racist views on the inferiority of Africans and Caribbean islanders. It's far more worthwhile as a historical artifact and cultural touchstone than as an enjoyable story in its own right.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
slow-paced
I had a moment thinking I would possibly really enjoy this. And then he arrives on the island, and it all starts to crumble down and collapse in on itself. Defoe clearly writes well, but I'm more interested in reading Said's take in Culture and Imperialism and reading Coetzee's variation, Foe, than I am thinking about this absolutely brutally boring book. Interestingly, the most interesting parts to me are any section in which the foundational principles of British imperialism come out in flying colors and are questioned by those whom Crusoe deems to be savages and nothing more. Friday literally asks Crusoe why God doesn't kill Satan if he is really that much of an issue, and Crusoe is dumbfounded but, instead of saying that he doesn't know, he thinks to himself, "Oh it really is true that one can only preach and teach and convert a savage for so long before one realizes that God has only given his most ardent disciples divine faith, so Friday is fundamentally incapable of understanding." His delusion makes him one of God's white-supremacist chosen. Sad. But very interesting psychological moment. Wish there was more of that. But then it would be more a postcolonial novel than colonial one, and it would thus no longer be Robinson Crusoe. Glad I read it for its literary historical value, not for my personal entertainment.
"Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it."
I don't much care for Daniel Defoe's style of writing. For me, Robinson Crusoe, as well as Moll Flanders were boring and more like a "long report" than a story.
I don't much care for Daniel Defoe's style of writing. For me, Robinson Crusoe, as well as Moll Flanders were boring and more like a "long report" than a story.