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Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is the best example of a new idea of modern man. Why?

Robinson Crusoe can be seen as an example of the common man that arose out of the transition from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The novel was written at the same time as the settlement of America, where people left the Old World to make their own new lives in the wilderness, using whatever skills and materials they had at hand. Crusoe used the things on the island (representing the New World) along with whatever...

Robinson Crusoe can be seen as an example of the common man that arose out of the transition from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The novel was written at the same time as the settlement of America, where people left the Old World to make their own new lives in the wilderness, using whatever skills and materials they had at hand. Crusoe used the things on the island (representing the New World) along with whatever he was able to salvage from the shipwreck (representing the Old World). His success in his survival speaks to the success of the colonists in the Americas. The rise of capitalism, where each person is able to climb up the socioeconomic ladder through his own efforts, is paralleled in Crusoe’s life on the island. It is no longer through the privilege of birth or of patronage that one can achieve success, but with the work of one’s own two hands and a creative mind.

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