Here is the story of Robinson Crusoe, and why he stupidly got himself stuck on an island. So what the story is all about is this guy named Robinson Crusoe. When he was a kid he wanted to be a sailor and when he grew up he did become a sailor. But his parents (his mom and dad) wanted him to work for his dad. He did what he wanted, and that’s how he gets stuck on the island.
But, after a while he didn’t want to be a sailor. He thought that going on long trips with lots of dangerous storms was very tiring.
In the book, he says, “I soon found that my mother’s words were true. A sailor’s life is indeed a hard life. There was no time for play on board of our ship. Even in the fairest weather there was much work to be done.”
So since he thought that being a sailor was too rough of a job he decided to start a plantation. But, he needed men to help on the plantation so he decided to go on an another voyage. He was going to buy slaves. That’s lame and so I kind of think he got what he deserved by getting stuck on an island. He was even lazy about it. He did not want to go for a voyage but he needed the money and the men.
So he goes on another voyage, but in the middle of the voyage there is a big storm and the ship crashed. He lands on an island. He wants to find a tree to rest under after swimming so much to get to shore. He finds the tree and sleeps. It sounds like this. zzzzzzzzzzzzz. He wakes up and walks around the beach looking for stuff and then he looks out into the distance and he sees the ship that he went on a voyage. He thinks that there might be supplies on the ship that could be of use to him. So he builds a raft to carry the supplies and he goes and gets as many supplies as he can. Then he goes back to the ship with a smaller raft to get more supplies. And on the final trip he grabs two muskets, two scimitars, and some coins and other supplies. He knows that the coin won’t be all that important. I never really got why he took the coins with him. Travel light dude!
So then he continues to live on his island, although it is not his island, because soon enough he will find out that Indians live on it already. But, before that happens, he decides to build a castle out of the supplies he got from the ship.
What he got from the ship was some wood and cloth and some other stuff. He looked for a hill and found one. So he hauled all the supplies he could (and wow that sounded like A LOT of work in the book), but he could not get to the top. He got about mid-way. He builds the castle and built a wall. He thought that there might be Indians that would hurt him. There was not a door, but instead he used a ladder. Then he thought that he might need a new pair of clothes. He made them, but you would have laughed at the clothes because I thought he looked funny. It says in the book, “I made me a jacket and a pair of knee breeches. I wanted them to keep me cool rather than warm, so I made them quite loose. You would have laughed to see them. But when I was out in the rain they kept me dry.”
Did I like the book? Yes…but, I would pick another one to read, but I had to read this one.
I have to tell you if I did like it or if I didn’t like it. And the answer is yes I didn’t like it all the time, but it was okay. Why I didn’t like it is because I couldn’t imagine the island. I would have liked more speaking parts. There is a movie “Castaway” I liked better, but my mom says Castaway ripped off Robinson Crusoe. Actually, she didn’t say that. She said they were part of the same ‘genre.’
I would recommend this book and tell you to volunteer to read it. But you will have to read it because you are in school and it is officially on your reading list. So instead of telling you to volunteer to read it, I’ll tell you to read this one first because it is actually pretty good. If you like books about islands, then you would probably like this book. At least it has a happy ending.
