The Journal – Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

The extract is from the second section of the novel written by Daniel Defoe. It is written day by day by the main character who is Robinson Crusoe, who finds himself shipwrecked on a desert island and begins to keep a journal.

The title “the journal” means it is a travel diary in which the protagonist tells what he does.

Looking at the layout you can see it is a narrative text organised into ten paragraphs. Every paragraph starts with a date, which is the date Robinson he writes the diary.

The first paragraph has a specific function: Robinson speaks about himself and how he feels. The main character communicates to the reader his despair and his lack of hope and his fear of this state. He also appoints the island “Island of despair”, so in this way he gives us a negative idea of the environment that surrounds him. The adjective and the nouns he uses, contribute to give us a perception to the setting.

In the second paragraph Robinson communicates hope. There are some references to a change of mood: “to my great surprise” (line 12), “it was of some comfort” (line 14), “I hoped” (line 15). In fact when Robinson finds the ship, he communicates hope and he starts making future plans. In this way we can understand some aspects of the protagonist: he has a practical mind and a rational attitude, he is not inclined to admire the beauty and charm of nature all around him or to daydream, he is active and ready to react to difficult situations and solve the problems he has to face.

In the other paragraphs the protagonist tells us how he lives his days and what he does to survive. He also illustrates the various problems that it must overcome, such as the rains, the destroyed vessel, the tide, hunger.

The kind of narrative technique where the narrator and the protagonist are the same person is called “first person narration”. Its advantages are:

-          It gives credibility and realism to the events that are narrated;

-          The reader has direct access to the character’s thoughts and feelings;

-          The reader is involved emotionally in the plot.

The main lexical items in this extract are the sea, the ship and the fortification. The sea is connected to the idea of shipwreck, with the hostile nature, especially in the first paragraph. It is also something that separates Robinson at first from the ship and then from the land and the material civilisation he has left behind him. The ship represents what remains of Robinson’s old world, it is a link with civilisation, a source of materials, a means to survive. The fortification stands for Robinson’s future. He represents his attempt to survive and to take possession of the land as the building of the fence shows.