Please give examples of how Daniel Defoe's personal life affected his writings.

Many great
authors draw from personal experiences when writing their works.  Defoe was no different. 
Throughout his life, he suffered through many devastations and calamitous situations.

When he was seven, a plague killed over 70,000 people throughout England, and the Great
Fire of London swept through his neighborhood leaving only his and one other home standing. By
the time he was thirteen, his mother had died.  He married and had eight children, two of whom
died. Throughout his adult life, he was always in debt.  He was very involved in politics and
was very outspoken on government issues.  He eventually took to writing and wrote over 500
books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics.  It was his political pamphlets that got him
into serious trouble and prison in 1703!  He witnessed a horrific hurricane sweep through his
country in 1703; the experience later provided the material for his literary piece, "The
Storm," in 1704.

It is believed that in writing , Defoe may have used
the true story of Scottish castaway, Alexander Selkirk.  It also could have been based upon the
experiences of a Henry Pitman, a surgeon to the Duke of Monmouth who was imprisoned in a
Caribbean penal colony for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. 

Whichever character Defoe wrote about is unimportant.  What is important is that
Robinson Crusoe is one of the best pieces of literature ever
written!  It has been called anfor the development of civilisation, as a
manifesto of economic individualism, and as an expression of European colonial desires. But it
also shows the importance of repentance and illustrates the strength of Defoe's religious
convictions.