Robinson Crusoe: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Robinson and his group have to deal with the unpredictable forces of nature, from cold weather and snow to wild beasts. The story about the bear is an odd one, in which a man shows his superiority to the animal by teasing it before killing it. The lack of care that the men show to the bear is oddly reminiscent of the lack of care that Robinson and the other Europeans show to the natives, though it is not at all clear that such a parallel is intended by Defoe.

The encounter with the wolves is even more dangerous than any run-in with strange wild beasts that Robinson feared so much during his prior journeys. This raises the question of whether Defoe is simply trying to pack more action into his novel or if he is suggesting that Robinson perhaps should have stayed on his island, that this experience is another result of a mistake. Either way, Robinson again uses ingenuity to save the day.

Robinson characteristically makes a mistake, trusting a guide who led him by a very dangerous path. Nonetheless, Robinson survived against the odds, perhaps thanks to divine providence.

Robinson now settles into a comfortable life in England, the sort of life offered by his parents that he originally ran from. It seems as if providence has taught him his lesson and, in response to his turn to Christianity, rewarded him. His two nephews show the two different paths Robinson himself chose between so long ago: a stable life at home or an adventurous one at sea.

Yet even after all of his dangerous adventures—even after he married and had children—Robinson cannot be content with a comfortable life at home. In fact, his interest in his comfortable life is so meager that he never even gives the name of his wife or his children, and leaves his children to go on more adventures. It is unclear how to interpret Robinson's choices here, as they seem to stand in contrast to his progression over the novel and his realizations on the island. How is it any less of a sin for him to leave his children to go on an adventure than it was for him to refuse to listen to his parent's advice. It seems almost as if Defoe was struggling at the end of the novel with an issue that afflicts many a blockbuster novel or film: the need to create a cohesive narrative being in tension with the desire to create room for a sequel. It is worth noting that Robinson's lack of care for the society in which he finds himself in England does again raise the question of whether he was better off leaving the island and the solitary life he loved.

Robinson's island, once a wilderness where he had to lead a self-sufficient life all alone, now has its own small society, as it has been turned into a colony. This also suggests that Robinson wouldn't actually have been able to continue to live a solitary life on the island even had he stayed.

Again, Robinson turns his haven of individualism into a fully-fledged, well-populated colony. Unable to stay satisfied with a comfortable, ordinary life, Robinson has plenty more adventures to tell the reader about in a future story.