Robinson is the protagonist and the narrator of the novel. He is
individualistic, self-reliant, and adventurous. He continually discounts
the good advice and warnings of his parents and others, and boldly
seeks to make his own life by going to sea.
He is at times overly ambitious and is unable to remain content with a
comfortable life (whether in England or Brazil). Trapped on his island,
he learns to survive all alone and also ends up becoming a devout
Christian, repenting for his past sins and gaining a newfound confidence
in God and his divine plan of providence. Robinson's extreme
individualism is at times heroic, but also leads him to disregard
others. While he values the loyal friends he finds over the course of
his journeys (repaying and rewarding the captain's widow and the Portuguese captain, for example), he sells Xury into a kind of slavery or indentured servitude and treats Friday
as an inferior servant. His self-reliance can also shade into
narcissism, reflected in his narration's focus on himself and disregard
for others: most of the other characters in the novel don't even get a
name. But in spite of any of these faults, Defoe presents Robinson as
the novel's intrepid hero, who draws on reserves of ingenuity and
bravery to survive incredibly against the whims of nature and fate.
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