Although it is a cliche to say that Defoe's The Life and and Adventures ofof
York, Mariner (1719) is a spiritual biography, the novel is just that: before his
ill-fated voyage, Crusoe is at odds with both his father and his God,
and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness
to which it has since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to
God and my father (http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/defoe/crusoe.pdf (7),
and at the conclusion of his voyage, he comments that his life has
been characterized, so far, "Providence's chequer-work" (259), acknowledging the role
of God in the outcome of his adventures.
At many points after Crusoe's
religious conversion, he makes very conventional statements about "God's grace" and
the "power of Providence" as an integral part of his life. These are statements that
any outwardly religious person might make on a daily basis, but in his fourth year on the
island, Crusoe discusses his...
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