Individualism in Robinson Crusoe.doc

陆震涛,石蓉,卓倩倩,詹景云,顾冰珂,彭圆圆
Individualism in Robinson Crusoe
Individualism is the core of the bourgeois world outlook, and the fundamental principle of bourgeois morality. The source of Western individualism can be traced back to politics, military, economy, ideas, social life. In Robinson Crusoe, individualism find its expressions in the following aspects: sanctity, self-sufficiency and self-governance.
Integrity:
Robinson wasn’t satisfied with ordinary life and wanted to have an adventure in the sea when he was young. He wasn’t satisfied with the arrangements his father made for him and finally went to the sea. In this regard,individual’s sanctity can never yield to their families’ expectation.
Self-Sufficiency:
Robinson’s life on the island pletely self-sufficient. He built house, planted wheat, made bread, clothes, furniture, pottery, weaved baskets. He had to rely on himself for all the living kind of self-sufficiency bred individualism.
Self-governance:
On the island where Crusoe lived, there was no government. So Crusoe just lived under autonomy or self-governance. He set himself to do something every work day and rest at the weekend. This is some sort of self-governance, which is also a feature of individualism.
Chapter 1 & 2
In Chapter 1 and 2, we can see individualism from Robinson Crusoe in the following three aspects:
The desire of realizing the individual value
Robinson Crusoe was born in a good middle-class family. His father designed him for the law, but he was interested in nothing except going to sea. His father persuaded him to stay at home earnestly.
“He told me it was for Men of desperate Fortunes on one Hand, or of aspiring, Superior Fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon Adventures, to rise by Enterprise, and make themselves famous in Undertakings of a Nature out of the cormnon Road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle State, or what might be called the