What are the most and least admirable traits of Robinson Crusoe?
Robinson Crusoe's most admirable character trait is his staunch individualism. Here is a man determined to make his own way in the world, to stake his claim in the far-flung corners of the globe without the assistance of anyone. Indeed, so determined is Crusoe to make it on his own that he ignores the sage advice of his father and heads off to sea to seek his fortune.
An adventurous soul, Crusoe understands that life is for living, that the numerous opportunities available to a young man such as himself must be grasped if one is to look back in later years and truly say, without fear of contradiction, that he has lived a rich, fulfilling life.
In practical terms, however, Crusoe's ardent individualism and his seemingly insatiable taste for adventure reveal some rather less admirable character traits. The most obvious of these is Crusoe's evident lack of concern...
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for other people, especially slaves. This is something of a shock to many readers approaching the story for the first time, who are unprepared to face the uncomfortable fact that Crusoe is a slave trader at various points in the book, a man who makes his living off human misery.
Making one's way in the world is all well and good, and rejecting parental advice can, under certain circumstances, display a certain romantic charm. But there's nothing vaguely charming, romantic, or admirable about the way that Crusoe treats slaves—nor Friday, for that matter.
As well as being influenced by the racial prejudice that was virtually universal among white Europeans at the time, Crusoe's superior attitude toward Friday is a consequence of his rampant individualism, which at times degenerates into an unpleasant narcissism. Indeed, one could say that, until his religious conversion, Crusoe is very much the center of his own universe, a self-made man who worships his creator.