Robinson Crusoe is about a man discovering God’s sovereignty during exile. Robinson disobeys his father’s commands by going to sea, receives punishment through shipwreck, and then turns to Christ in his distress. He is both Jonah and the Prodigal Son. Alone on the island, Robinson can contemplate God’s sovereign work in his life.
The first part of the novel is about Robinson’s rebellion. His father tells him to avoid the sea and go into law. Robinson refuses. Robinson even receives grace on the sea and in his first planation in Brazil, yet he still heads back to the sea. He craves human companions but disdains his family. He wants freedom yet participates in a slave-ship enterprise. He’s given rules to follow, and he breaks them.
The second part is about Robinson’s conversion. In his sickness, he dreams that the Lord speaks to Him. This word is confirmed by scripture: Psalm 50:15 says, “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Here he learns to reinterpret the rest of his life in light of God’s providence. As he discovers how to survive physically, he learns how to thrive spiritually. He’s given provision from the sunk ship that left him wrecked on this deserted island. He finds animals and plants on the island to help sustain him. He has been baptized in the ocean, and now he feeds on miraculous food (“I ought to consider I had been fed even by a miracle”): two symbols of the sacraments.
The third part of the novel is about Robinson’s survival after his conversion. He pledges his life to God and he prospers. He spends more than twenty years cultivating land, farming animals (mostly goats), and establish three homes. Robinson sees cause and effect in his daily actions, and he’s given ingenuity to figure out how to solve common problems if he can exhibit patience. He works on canoes as a means of escaping the island. He harvests corn and conserves various resources like his clothes and gunpowder. This is the part of the book people think about when they think of the book.
The fourth part of the novel recounts Robinson’s encounter with cannibals. They are the Ninevites to Robinson’s Jonah. I’ll pick up here next week.
Experiments in Criticism 