Abstract
The thesis introduces the fate of Robinson Crusoe, and the lesson that his choice and his final fate give us. It describes Robinson Crusoe went out from his parents’ house to sail in the sea without following his parents’ advice for his own dream though his parents had leaved lots of properties for him. What he wanted was freedom, and the life which he created. When he successfully left his home for the sea, he met the serious disasters that he could not imagine before starting his trip, but he decided to continue his sailing, which leaded to his finally drafting to an isolated island. Luckily, he escaped from the terrible place, and began his new life. We can see that Robinson Crusoe is a person with stubborn and firm character. The thesis aims to discuss and praise Robinson Crusoe and his choice according to his own thought, and it also tells us that we should insist on our own choices and be responsible for them.
Key Words
Character; fate; work; effect
摘 要
论文介绍了鲁滨逊的命运，及他的选择和最后命运给我们的教训。它描述了鲁滨逊不顾父母的劝阻而绝然的离家出海，尽管他的父母给他留下了一笔可观的财产。他想要的是自由，他自己创造的生活。当他成功的离家而出海后，遇到了他之前所想象不到的灾难,但他还是决定继续航海，这就导致了他后来漂流到一个孤岛上，幸运的是他最后逃离了那个可怕的地方，并开始了他新的生活。从这里我们就可以知道他是一个顽固同时也很坚定的人。这篇论文意在讨论和赞扬鲁滨逊及他按照自己的想法选择生活的性格，同时还告诉我们要坚持自己的决定并为自己的选择负责。
关键词
性格；命运；劳动；作用
Introduction
Character decides fate. Human being is the center of the world. Since human being opens their eyes, they are confused by their fate. While under the same social background, family environment, and with the same intelligence, some people are successful, but others are failing. The reason is the different kinds of character. Accordingly, different character lead to their different kinds of fate. According to the dictionary, character is the mental or moral qualities that make a person, group, nation, etc different from others. Generally speaking, character is the psychologist feature in the attitude and behavior when a person deal with people and matters, such as reasonable, stable, and frank. But character is not just simple, for every kind of character has its different sides; the cultural background of temperament is the basic factor of character. Fate is the power believed to control all events in a way that can not be resisted; destiny. Fate is not so mysterious that can not be mastered. When a person is in his old age, he can know what to do and how to deal with them. In fact, this is the convert of the outside fate to inside character. If a person masters his character, he controls his fate at the same time. In the world which is full of fierce competition, a person must firstly know his character, and then command his character well, he can be a popular man in the world. Otherwise, he may falls behind others, and be discriminated. The following is the detailed discussion of character and fate. Robinson Crusoe sets a good example for us.
I. The Brief Introuduction of the original works
A. The Introuduction of The Author
The author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe was born in a good commercial family in 1660, in London. He was once a businessman, who ran the enterprise of underclothes, cigarettes and wine trade, he had lived through some difficulties, but he could save his enterprise every time after his failure, meanwhile, he showed us his stable determination to fight against his fate. He could not be destroyed. All of those experiences paved the way of thought and technique of the accomplishment of his masterpiece Robinson Crusoe. That is, the success of Robinson Crusoe is not occasional. It is said that besides Bible, Robinson Crusoe is the most published book. Today, the book has been regarded as the first long fiction in the world.
B. the Introduction of the Brief Content
Robinson Crusoe was written under the enlightenment of a real story in 18th. A Scottish seafaring man in Britain ship named Alengzander slake clashed against his captain, and was deserted in an isolated island, which had the distance of 500 meters far away from the coast of Chile. He lived alone there for about four years; he was finally saved by a famous sailor and was taken home in 1771. The event had evoked great interesting in the Europe. Robinson Crusoe, who was created by Daniel Defoe, was a representative of bourgeoisie, an ideal hero, what he advocated was not to satisfy with annoyance, but to develop, to work and to attain something through your effort. We can see the tradition of western civilization from him and his adventure spirit. The works praises people’s work spirit. The fiction opens up the way of English realism fiction. Robinson Crusoe, who was the protagonist of The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was a person of stubborn, aggressive and firm. Because of his decision to go out to see the outside world and know it, he finally went out to be a sailor without the concession of his parents. He became a slave in the coast of Africa because of the attack by a group of pirates, but he later escaped there for that he can not bear the hard life, and he was saved by a Portugal ship, and he was carried to Brazil safely, where he attained a lot of money. But he was not satisfied with such property and designed to his dream to be on the way to sell slaves in Africa when somebody advised him to do so. Just because of it, he was flowed to an isolated island and was reduced to a lonely man without any company. Thank goodness, there were so much food, clothes and tools left in the ship which was wrecked on the coast. He could still be alive for those materials. During the period, Bible was his spirit support, he built house, got rice, tamed sheep and made leather clothes by the fur of animals. After twenty eight years, he was saved by an English ship to England.
II. The Process of Being Locked on the Isolated Island
A. The Conflict of Robinson Crusoe’s Character
We can not clearly define the character of Robinson Crusoe, because his character was complex. On the one hand, he was undoubtedly weak for his bourgeois status, he was tired of the boring commercial life, and was afraid of the existed and disagreeable way to be rich and devoting all his life to such common profession; he wanted to have another life style which could supply him excitement and energy. In a word, he wanted to attain most of what he wanted, and be far away from the earthly world. He wanted to live a special life. On the other hand, he liked freedom, and attempted to pursue his own life, he was also willing to achieve his dream at any price, even worked hard. His strong point of his character was showed here completely. His weakness in the common life just converted to the strong point of his later sailing life, which was a sharp different world from what he had lived for about twenty years.
B.The First Decision to Go for Sailing
Robinson Crusoe was supposed to live happy and easy life, but he attempted to go out from his parents’ house to sail in the sea without following his parents’ advice for his own dream though his parents had leaved lots of property for him. He came out with several companies and began his sailing life.
C.The Second Decision to Stay in the Sea
All of his thought promoted him to go out to Hull, and met one of his friends, who persuaded him to go to London, so he suffered the first storm in the sea. At this time, he wanted to go home very much and felt regret that he did not follow his parents’ words, but when the sea calmed down, he forgot the fear and worry during the storm, just concentrated himself to the beautiful and peaceful evening. This was the second time he followed his own thought and created the prelude of his later lonely life.
D. Meeting the Serious Disaster in the Sea
Once he decided to stay in the sea, his fate could not be controlled by himself but only the disasters in the sea. The storm was varied and changeable. It could take away his life anytime, his second unhappiness was coming. This was a storm lasted longer and more serious than the first time. Luckily, he and his company were saved. This time he may probably go back with the grave persuasion of an older. But still he did not go back just for his pity self-ego, he was afraid of confronting with the discrimination and hatred opposed the best motions that to go home,
That they are not asham’d to sin, and yet was asham’d to repent, not asham’d of the Action for which they ought justly to be esteem’d fools, but are asham’d of the returning, which only can make them be esteem’d wise men.(Defoe,16)
This was the third time his personality put him to the abyss of his unlucky fate.
E. Being Locked in the Isolated Island
Thus, he continued to sail with his company, but unluckily, they were attacked by a group of pirates, Robinson Crusoe was caught as a slave of a Moor. Though he finally escaped from his Master, and earned enough money by doing some trade with others, and could live a quiet retired life and of which his father had so carefully described the middle station of life, he was still interested in some other things, he finally went to Africa to do the business of selling slaves, which was the real beginning of his unlucky fate. From now on, he was locked in the isolated island.
F. The Character of Robinson Crusoe
From the above facts, we the readers may hold that Robinson Crusoe was a person with unreasonable, even mad personality, he could be easy and happy whatever life style he chose as long as he had not decide to go to Africa. Before he was reduced to be a lonely man, he had experienced the similar condition, the only difference was he was saved and could live the normal life, he himself once said that if he was not so aggressive and impious, he could never experience such kind of terrible life. When he was concentrated in the great ecstasy of survival, new danger was waiting for him. The life on the isolated island was difficult that we can not imagine. There were no existed food, no place to have a rest, no people to communicate with, besides all of these, the worst was the fear itself, he would be attacked by wild animal anytime, Therefore, he must be alert to everything every time. If Robinson Crusoe was weak, he might have lost his heart to continue his life, and might do nothing. But he did not do so, the base of his unlucky fate was just his aggressive character, therefore, he was not depressed, not negative but positive to fight against nature, all of his activities were not only for survival, but also for creation. The first problem he must solve on the island was survival, Robinson Crusoe was born in the middle class family, so he believed his own strength very much, he believe only his own effort, not others’, can help him to make his dream come true, to help him climb up the ladder of the social. Therefore, he moved all of the useful materials to the island and did not fell tired for about forty times. So, he felt not so sad when the wrecked ship was flown by sea wave and then he built tent, made fence, built the house to live in, caught fish and sheep as food. In a word, he did everything he could to prepare for his later life on the isolated island. Thank goodness, he attained enough food and materials to live on, and because of his kindness, he saved a person named Friday, who helped Robinson Crusoe a lot, finally they saved a ship, in turn, the people in the ship saved them, they took them back to Britain. Until now, we could see Robinson Crusoe was reduced to be a vagrant, but finally he came back to human being.
From his life that he escaped from his family to being saved by others, what he faced was almost all difficulty. Through the slight description and discussion, we have been informed that what Robinson Crusoe faced was almost all difficulty and dangers that a common people can hardly deal with, even dare not confront with, but Robinson Crusoe faced them bravely. Just as his words, it is disgusting to cherish the thought of going home to live easy life. He held there was a kind of mysterious force made him go forward, and he attributed all of this to God’s will, he showed his aggressive character that he did not want to obey the traditional life style, his so-called “mysterious predestination” just reflected spirit condition of denying the bound of modern tradition and demanding the development of primate freedom, his strange thought just reflected his courage and lofty quality of opening up new world, all of which formed his bourgeois character.
From all these above, we could come to the conclusion that Robinson Crusoe chose his life, and was responsible for his own choice, he saved himself in the loneliness for a long time, he was successful. What I want to say is that, his success was not only due to his survival, but also his maintained health and integrity and personality, he still had the common sense, which had not been corroded by endless loneliness, in turn, he abstained his fruit that a common can not achieve even can not imagine. We could praise him undoubtedly that he is a hero, a hero not only in his own times, his own country, but also in all human being. His strong mind, kind heart, aggressive temperament help him achieve the utmost of his life, in the above passage, we have analyzed Robinson Crusoe was a person with complex character, he was weak in the earthly society, but strong minded in his own choice and he was kindhearted to save Friday who finally helped him escaped from that isolated island. The adventure story tells us, as a human being, we’d better live according to our own will, whatever disasters we will meet, and the most important point is we must form a good character that can be responsible for the life we have chosen. It is important to have a character of strong minded, steadfast, tough and tensile to face our life. Just as Shakespeare’s motto in Cymbeline: trouble is the mother of strong for ever.
III. Different Character, Different FateA. The Important Role of Character in the Daily Life
In our modern society, people live in a world that contains fierce competition; most people live with great pressure. There is an American journalist interviewed the great banker：“ what is the most factor of your success?” He answered without any hesitation: “Character”, a series of questions following: what is character? What kind of character is good for success in such a society?
B. The Relationship between Proper and Improper Character
Psychologists find that improper character is an important factor leading to be suffered and failure, such as sensitive, sheltie, stubborn, unconfident, introversive, self-center, irritable, and pay excessive attention to other’s evaluation. In fact, the development of healthy and integrated character is more important than the intelligence, just like ability can be formed gradually, but habit need our continuous training; many successful companies focus on first the degree of the expansion of the employees’ character when they are planning to absorb some new workers.
The conception of temperament is wider than human nature and personality, it has not only informed factor, but also a social factor, we can list a series of advantage of character, also can arrange disadvantage, they just like the two sides of a coin, they depend on each other, and react on each other. The strong point is usually the resource of shortage, the elaborate of advantage usually exposes on the biggest disadvantage. The effective step is: to see clearly your own strong points, and know your shortage, only treating yourself well, improving yourself can you go forward firmly.
C. The Correct Attitude towards One’s Proper and Improper Character
The people who have drawback in temperament will not live so happy life compare to those who are positive to life in doing their business, study, treating others and dealing with matters in their daily lives, and they may enjoy the different feeling. After you experience much trials and hardships in your life, and if you are positive sanguine, strong minded, kind and gentle, you will have the chance to enjoy the feeling that king sponsored: to sow one kind of temperament, to gain a kind of success.
It is said that God is fair, and everyone is the apple that has been bitted by God. Actually, this theory is easy to be understood by anyone. But in our real life many people can not accepted their own shortage, and accordingly they complain all day instead of doing some useful thing to make amends for their shortcoming, they can not be saved, God has deserted them. While, there are still a group of people with strong mind just like Robinson Crusoe, they never give up when they are in trouble, even in despair condition. This kind of people is the real hero of our society, we should learn from them.
Ⅳ. Detailed Examples
A. The Example of Sanglan
The world is so complex and changeable that it is hard for a person to live well, let alone those disabled ones. For instance, our famous national gymnast Sanglan, she took part in the gymnastic training when she was a child, she was very industrious, she do the exercise every day from dawn until dark, and with the help of the strict coach, she could master the spirit of the gymnastic, so she finally got the qualification of participating the Olympic Games, much still, she often wins the golden medal, but, when she was concentrated in the great joys, she felt off and broke her legs in one of the Olympic Games. From that time on, she became a handicapped woman, and could not still stay in her loved and familiar gymnastic field. This was a great punch on Sanglan. But after a short time for sadness, she finally overcame herself with the consol and help of her family members, her relatives and the public people who like her. She can feel a botch of light is shooting at her in the darkness; she converted her despair to hope, and accepted a job worked as a host, we the audiences can see her bright smile appear on her face again. She did not absorb herself in the sadness for a long time, and she did not complain her unlucky fate endlessly, she was like Robinson Crusoe. In the beginning, they chose their lives according to their own will bravely, irrespective of what kind of difficult they will meet; their character forced them to confront with their joy and sadness of their lives. That was their fate, the fate they chose and faced.
B. The Story of Einstein
There are a great number of such kinds of events. Einstein was well-known in our world, and he was a person who liked to stay alone, for he could get aspiration when he stayed alone to create the famous theory. We can understand him from different aspects, but he regarded himself as a lonely traveler, if we try to understand him from this aspect, we will get new information of the great scientist. He was the greatest scientist in the atom times, and also the most brilliant intellectual in existence. He liked to stay alone to think some profound issues. It is worthy in referring to that his loneliness was not forced but his choice, he could live well and do some matters in the loneliness which is regarded to beunbearable by most people. Actually, loneliness has two sides, if you make friends with him, he will like you, too, but once you hated him and fought against him, he also treated you in the same way. Einstein adhered to his own principle all the time, though his loneliness became clash with the outside world, he just replied them with silence. His understanding of lonesome is deep, he held that a real scientist can bear loneliness, and a well bred man also needed primate life and put it to objective and logic world. This is just like the people live in the noisy big city, he desire to search for a quiet, fresh life. Einstein’s explanation of his lonely temperament was full of theory, and had listed to the degree of transcend real and perceptive world. Therefore Einstein never fell unrest for his loneliness, because he hates the deliration in the earthly world. Only break away from the deliration and quarrel, can scientists find themselves and the real freedom in their own field. When his second wife died in 1936, his life changed basically, loneliness is not his character and his thought any more, but it became true, it became his close company in his daily life. His felling of loneliness usually can be seen on his face. When his relatives and his little sister died in 1950s, Einstein was hit heavily again. He was tangled with loneliness from that time on. But he overcame all of obstacles and contributed a lot to human being, the objective field that only scientists can enter while the common people can hardly understand. Supposed the scientists are not the lonely traveler in this field, what achievement we can get? Einstein can be regarded as a great man in our human society. This is a second example to tell us that only make ourselves be firm, can we be the winner of our lives.
It is said that fate can not be resisted, while it is possible to change your temperament. It is not only inborn, to shape it in the day after tomorrow is also important. The recent survey issued in America showed that the average intelligence of the successful people in the field of politics and trade is in the middle level, but their emotional quality is high. In fact, the factor of EQ is included in the character, therefore, our opinion that character decides fate is proved by science. Actually, we do not need to prove the point, only looking at the various famous men in the human history, they are the undoubtedly proved. Although some of them are successful, and others are failing, each of their fate is related closely to their personality and special temperament.
In the history, for the unfair chance, the factor of character is not so important, but today, in the highly developed information times, the same opportunity is existed in the front of almost everyone, the only difference is the different attitudes to treat opportunity, the form is decided by character finally. In such a society, we have no reason to neglect our responsibility, and have no space to complain, what we should do is only to form our temperament, and to grasp our own fate.
C. The Story of Danna
Danna, the queen of England, her astonishing beauty overmastered the prince, and also overcame all the people in the world. This is not the crucial factor that influenced her fate, but her treasonable temperament. Concerning to Danna, there seem to be many topics. Nowadays, she had not existed in the world, but what she leaves to us is some beautiful recollection, the great domino effect she made in her life is not easy for us to efface. From a pure little girl to a famous queen, and finally broke away from the loyalty, spanorced with Charlie, the unusual experience showed us her temperament and personality. People paid more attention to her beauty, mild, but neglected the other sides of her temperament---- treason. Treason and mellow seemed to be contradict, but they coexisted in her body, formed her short life. It was just the connection of the two that characters created her specialty and misfortune. If she was not so beautiful, she was not the queen, at the same time, she could avoid a lot of misery in her life. As a queen, she really got the imaginable wealth, but she also paid high cost for it. If she was not treasonable, and only obeyed the various rules of the loyalty, did not fight against her fate, though she was still a famous somebody, the judgment of people to her was different. If we say the loyalty changed the fate of Danna, then this was the inevitable result she fought against her fate from a pure girl to a treasonable queen. The behave and dressing of Danna were different gradually from the several rules of the loyalty, so it was normal for her to be blamed. In the loyal that was famous for their conservation, the common and normal behavior in her eyes can not be understood. For example, she liked to stand beside the playground to whoop and clap for her children when they were playing football there, and bought clothes for her children in the flesh in the clothes shop, offered absolute different education to her children, aiming to let her children know the real world, the real life. All of these opposed to the tradition and rule of the loyalty. The loyalty could not bear the queen with so treasonable character and queen Danna could not accept the kinds of rule, when such rules lose its effect on Danna, she certainly left there. These were the life trace of queen Danna. A great person who can just be a good mother, but not a so-called queen. Finally, she insisted on her own personality and chose her own free life, but not the treasure in the British loyalty. This is a typical example for our point that character decides our life.
D. The Example of Xiangyu
All of the above are the frontal examples; there still are some contrary examples. Some people can not form proper character, and leading to the sad life. Xiangyu was a headstrong and indecisive person, therefore, though he was brave and tenacious, and could be so-called hero, he is still a rude man, he was festinated to be failing for his character. Therefore, the fight between Chu and Han was actually the haggle of temperament. At the beginning and the middle of the fight between Chu and Han, Xiangyu was actually in the advantageous condition, but he failed finally. The failure could be due to his character to the most extent. In the war, though Liubang was a rascal, his character had a lot of advantage that others could not compare, he can accept the words of his court, and was good at using useful people, he also dared to achieve his aim at any price. Although Xiangyu was a hero, he has not the quality of leader that was his indecisive character. For example, he could help his soldier to bind their cuts, but he could not praise them. The morale of the troop could not be evoked, so they failed in the batter.
Conclusion
We can see the frontal and the contrary sides of people’s character from the above introduction; we can also know the importance of our temperament in our daily lives and the competition. A frontal character could help us live easily in the world, while a contrary one just could increase our burden. Robinson Crusoe saved himself by working hard on the isolated island positively and did not design to the difficulties. So he lived a happy life after he was saved, he was the winner of his fate; his character decided his fate finally.
A wise person should master the theory well, and can be the winner of life, but some stupid men can not understand it, and can not command it well, such people only can be the victim of the world. They can not catch up with others; accordingly, they can not be admitted by people in the world. The popular people in the 21st are those who can master their character and fate.
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