Robinson Crusoe

One of the best known works of Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, is known for its intriguing portrayal of the evils of the  modern world such as colonization, economic individualism, slavery, etc. The nature of the protagonist and the situations he is put into and his actions during his solitary confinement on the island, are also central to the various film adaptations of the novel.Though it is  often observed that movies based on literary works don't live up to the expectations of the readers. On the other hand it is also a fact that often movies surpass the popularity of books. As far as Crusoe is concerned, as mentioned earlier, there are various film versions of the novel. The one I'm going to discuss here is the 1997 film of the same title.

To read the plot line of the movie click here

Since Robinson Crusoe is quite a modern novel, it is easy to capture its plot in the movie. Therefore, the events after Crusoe's shipwreck are common among all the cinematic adaptations. The intertextuality of this particular movie is highlighted when in the opening scene, we see Daniel Defoe reading a castaway's autobiography. We all know about the incident that inspired the writing of the novel i.e Alexander Selkirk's solitary years at an unknown island. And it is obvious this moment in the movie hints towards this event.

I'm not sure about Alexander Selkirk but, Robinson Crusoe seems to learn something from his time at the unknown island. He becomes aware of his own preconceived notions as well as prejudices and evils of the society he belonged to. If we look at the time of the novel's publication, we see that the idea of 'travel' and voyages is recurring theme of a lot of literary works. The thinking that travel and especially in sea trade, not only provides money, as in earning, but also some time to think about our lives, about circumstances. Our daily lives on the other hand don't have space for that 'individual time' and therefore travel becomes important.

Another important factor about travel is that it raises our curiosity. It helps us in knowing new things. And in cases like Crusoe, you learn everything from building a house to the different ways of living. We realize that when it comes to survival, we need so many things. Our basic necessities are also difficult to achieve. And I think that is what Crusoe teaches us apart from the depictions of the various socio religious evils. 

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