Robinson Crusoe: one man's discovery of himself, civilization and God. Almost everyone can recite the highlights of Robinson's adventures: a man is shipwrecked without resources on a ship On a desert island, survives for years on his own, suffers immeasurable anguish due to his isolation, discovers a footprint in the sand which belongs to Friday, and is finally rescued from his exile. Unfortunately this is all wrong. But more significant than all these details is that our overall perception of Robinson Crusoe is wrong. The most important fact about this children's adventure book is that it is not a children's adventure book at all. Rather, it is the adult tale of one man's discovery of himself, of civilization and of God. Early in Defoe's book, York's Robinson Crusoe commits what he calls his "original sin": he rejects his father's advice to join the family. Robinson is obstinate, arrogant and hungry for exploits and catastrophes ensue: storms, shipwrecks and slavery, but the boy continues in his follies the obstinate agent of all my miseries." Then Providence gives him a second chance, causing him to shipwreck on an island in the Atlantic, whose characteristics correspond more or less to those of the Juan Fernandez group in the Pacific Ocean where Robinson's real-life prototype, Alexander Selkirk, spent years of solitude pristine of incomparable beauty. To its desperate first inhabitant, it seems nothing less than Eden: "the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, everything being in constant vegetation. , or Spring Blossom, which looked like a planted garden. "In this paradise Robinson builds a new house, without Eve... middle of paper... demonstrates the enormity of our task; indeed, when before has a secular culture rebuilt itself on sacred foundations? We need ingenious solutions like those devised by our industrious hero. Like Robinson, we must never despair; like Robinson, we must find strength in prayer. It helps to keep in mind that we are the ones who have uprooted God from our homes, schools, books, arts; God, the sailor captain, never abandons his children. We do well to remember, moreover, that Robinson found salvation in a more desperate situation than ours. Then, perhaps, we can taste the truth in Walter de la's heartfelt observation Sea on Defoe's best creation: "Even to think of his admirable hermit is to be cheerful and take the heart from grace." Bibliography Zaleski, Philip. "The Strange Shipwreck of Robinson Crusoe." 1995): 38-44.