In Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”, Robinson was a man who lacked little faith in things such as religion and gave into temptation at a really young age. Due to his curiosity of wanting to be at sea, he made a promise to God to go back home if he survived the trip with no problems. Robinson however, decided to continue on sea voyages and eventually ends up getting shipwrecked in the process on an island all alone. The main question essentially is why Robinson Crusoe decided to stay on this abandoned island for 24 years when he was more than capable of finding an escape route. The reason for this was because Robinson was contemplating his relationship with God and how God was punishing him for turning his back on his promise about going home.
 It was on this island that Crusoe learned how to become closer to God. He learned how to pray, and began to repent for his past transgressions as a youth. Even in the face of hopelessness, he was still extremely optimistic due to the fact that he believed God was guiding him the whole way. “Also I found three very good Bibles which came to me in my Cargo from England, and which I had pack'd up among my things” (Dafoe ?). Him finding the bibles served as a sign of guidance and his moral compass for his time on the island. The bibles are what made him become closer to God in a sense and it was what made him confident in his ability to survive in an island. He got to the point where he even began to teach Friday about Christianity as well. Crusoe even believe that Friday might be the better Christian out of the two “…why it has pleased God to hide the like sabing Knowledge from many Millions of Souls, who if I might judge by this poor Savage, would make a much better use of it than we did.” (Dafoe ?).  By teaching Friday the teachings of God, he felt as if he was doing a good deed in the name of the Lord because the Savages really had no direction in life. The problem with Crusoe was not that he could not leave the island; it was that he felt he needed to spread religion and would not leave until that goal was achieved.
As he becomes ruler of this said island, he felt proud for being overly religious. “My man Friday was a protestant, his father was a pagan, and a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a papist; However, I allowed Liberty of Conscience throughout my Dominions…” (Dafoe ?) was essentially him boasting about his accomplishment and also illustrated that even though he urged Friday to become a Christian, he allowed his people to practice what they believed, even if it was not the same as Christianity. The more he continued to read the bible, the more he learned that he could not kill the cannibals of the island because he could not be a punisher, that was God’s job and only he determined who suffered. When he was teaching Friday about Christianity, he began to indulge in religious debates, “During the long Time that Friday has now been with Me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a Foundation of religious Knowledge in his Mind; particularly I ask'd him one Time who made him?” (Dafoe ?) Not only did he help Friday understand Christianity, but it was also a way for Crusoe himself to better understand it as well. On the island, he also kept a large cross from where he was first shipwrecked, it symbolized a new life for him, he overcame the obstacles of God’s “punishment” and repented his sins as a youth and the cross served as a reminder that he was the master of his own life instead of sulking in the depression of his sins.
Crusoe was a passive person, who often blamed himself for disobeying his father and his advice about going out to sea. He blames himself for not keeping his promise of prayer on his first voyage and him being stranded was a punishment of God. The more he found religion, he became more self-aware. He stopped blaming himself for his transgressions and took them in stride. Without disobeying his father, without going out on voyages, he would have not found the ability to be his own man, or even find religion. The reason he did not leave the island the first chance he got was because he needed to grow as an individual. Crusoe needed to become one with God first, he needed to become the master of his own life and not allow others to dictate what he should do. Sure he suffered for 24 years, but still prospered on that island and became more self determined and took control of all his decisions. He needed to repent and depend on God, he turned the negative experience into a positive one and essentially becomes a born again Christian in the process. The repentance justified his sins of being disobedient and thus made him the man he was when he left the island.