Robinson Crusoe

Before we get started, we want to make sure you're familiar with Robinson Crusoe. If you're not, hop on over to our summary for a moment to acquaint yourself with the book, and then hop back here to read up on what it represents in The Sign of the Beaver. We'll wait.

(Too lazy to read that awesome summary we wrote? Here's the super short version: Robin Crusoe—the man, not the book—washes up on a desert island after his boat capsizes. He thinks he's all by his lonesome… until he stumbles upon a tribe of cannibals, that is. He saves the life of Friday, a cannibal who's about to end up a snack for his buddies, and then goes on to save the world (sort of). The end.)

Okay, ready to focus on the book as a symbol now? Here goes.

Robinson Crusoe tamed the elements to survive his tale, but he shares more than just wilderness adventures with our boys Matt and Attean. While reading the story to Attean, Matt realizes that even his umpteenth reading of the book can teach him more about himself (than he ever cared to know). Take a look at a few of his realizations:

• Robinson Crusoe was kind of a jerk. Sure Crusoe and Friday became companions, but Friday swore to be Crusoe's slave, for Pete's sake. Attean makes his disgust over this development abundantly clear (freaking out and storming off tend to do that), which makes Matt rethink a lot of his own ideas. The result? Matt cuts out the part where Robinson Crusoe teaches Friday to call him master when he's reading to Attean—both to not upset his friend, but also because he realizes that this is pretty messed up.
• The author of Robinson Crusoe passes unfair judgment on the Indians. After spending just a few days together, Attean has already taught Matt plenty—yet after months together on Friday's island, Crusoe's still the head honcho, which is neither right nor believable. Matt realizes"it would have been better perhaps if Friday hadn't been quite so thickheaded. After all, there must have been a thing or two about that desert island that a native who had lived there all his life could have taught Robinson Crusoe" (10.5). Matt's got a point there, and it's about time he came to this realization.
• Robinson Crusoe is kind of a wimp. Sure he survives on a desert island, but his wrecked boat is loaded with survival gear. We're talking nails, a hammock, a dozen hatchets… As Matt tells himself, "Robinson Crusoe had lived like a king on that desert island!" (8.23). And what this means, is that the big R.C. isn't as heroic as Matt originally thought.
• The most important this, though, is that Matt learns that what he's always believed—that the white man should lead other men—is not truly the way of things. He and Attean become friends—companions even, like Crusoe and Friday—yet "he and Attean sure enough turned that story right round about" (11.49). Attean is the skilled hunter and survivalist, while Matt blunders along after him, hoping for his respect.

So what's the real truth behind the fiction? Exactly that: Robinson Crusoe and the stories it tells about race and surviving in the wilderness are fictitious. They're made up. And in The Sign of the Beaver, the book helps Matt come to understand all of this.