The Journal

The present essay has the aim to advance a personal interpretation on the extract The Journal drawn from the novel Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe. In doing so, I would like to take into consideration the following aspects: title, layout, sequences and their function, narrative techniques and characterization.

First of all, I am going to take into consideration the title: The Journal. At first glance, the intelligent reader may think about a text written day by day. Looking at the layout, the reader can realise it is a narrative text organised into sequences that are arranged in dates and to be precised to different days in september, october and november.

Let start trying to identify the function of each sequence. The function of the first sequence is to express Robinsoe Crusoe’s feelings: fear, desperation and lack of hope. The character uses adjectives and nouns like wild, unfortunate, death, fear, despair that contribute to create the negative perception of the surrounding environment. The function of the second sequence is to make the reader understand about some aspects of Robinson Crusoe’s characterization. This can be identified by the use of expressions like “I might get on board, and get some food and necessaries out of my relief” or “I imagined if we had all stayed on board might have saved the ship…” that contribute to draw a determinate character, with good planning abilities. The function of the third and fourth sequences is to convey the enterprising spirit of Robinson Crusoe. This is expressed by the expressions “to get all I could out of the ship, which I bought on shore, every tide of flood” and “I recovered many of them when the tide was out”. An utilitaristic function comes to light in the fifth sequence when the character decided to put under cover his necessaries. In the sixth sequence, his planning abilities re-emerge as he wants to protect himself from wild beasts or men. The seventh sequence is very short but it is very packed and expresses Robinson Crusoe’s willingness to work. The function of the seventh sequence is to express the prevision ability to get some food to survive.The last two sequences provided aim to express Robinson Crusoe’s  planning ability.

Moreover, the narrative technique used is the first person narrator. It allows the reader to be involved in the narration but on the other hand he or she cannot believe you everything said because the point of view is restricted to the narrator’s eyes. An important point to highlight is the fundamental narrator’s perception that makes the reader curios and involves him or her to go on reading.