Personal Reflection of the Novel Robinson Crusoe

The experiences that the classic novel study provided, helped me to evolve academically and intellectually most likely more than I know.  I only say this because overall I do not feel as though through this experience I have learned a lot of new material about literature, writing style etc.   Although, having a wider audience did influence my writing to be more formally written and express my writing in more of a collaborative manner (as though everyone had read or understood the novel).  As much as I did not enjoy reading Robinson Crusoe, I do not feel that the book was a waste of time.  In points of the book, I feel as though reading this with a more keen eye has helped me to be able to pick up important details easier. I feel I now understand why classic novels have been able to survive through the ages and reach out and relate to so many people. Also in terms of historical content, picking up on such details can create a better overall read.  If I were to not have read Robinson Crusoe, I would have never been able to learn about the historical and social content of that time period or see how a book written 292 years ago can still be an effective role-model for survival books written today.

I did not enjoy Robinson Crusoe because Defoe is not, (in my opinion) a great writer. He tends to not talk about anything at all. For the whole middle portion of the novel and also his journal were the very stupid "adventures" of Crusoe finding grapes, killing birds that he can not eat and other pointless things, that I did not need to know about (like having a family of cats that eventually just run away). From page one I felt that I was wasting my time. Yes there were points in the novel that I enjoyed reading, (such as the suspenseful parts during the time Crusoe finds a footprint that is not his) but overall, the book was a depressant. The assignment was not "in the wrong" here, only Defoe was. It's not that I don't understand that every book will, most likely, have a chapter or two where you want to throw the book. I just don't think that any book would have made me happy to read and critique for this assignment. And by having a book that I did not want to touch let alone read and critique, I definitly left this book on the back-burner which in turn did not produce a well written series of responces.

As a learner and reader, I learned that as much as reading anything more than a newspaper or magazine article makes my brain spin.  Personally, reading has never been a strong point in life that I brag about.  I did learn that the more you read, the easier reading comes to you and even though a book doesn’t have your attention at the time, enduring steadily through a novel is the best way to push through the slow parts to a thorough completion.  By being encouraged to read and participate more in proper critiquing methods, it will help me to pick apart what books I choose to read in the future.

Cole Maranger