Daniel Defoe，the writer of 《Robinson Course》was born in a merchant family in London in 1660. His novels were all finished at his senior age. The work《Robinson Crouse》
and《Mole Fronds》and so on significantly affected the development of fiction in Britain and even in Europe. He was also considered the “Father of Fiction in Britain and Europe”. He was just a merchant before he wanted to write frictions and he had never though about being a wrier. He had ever managed his own business such as underwear production materials industry, alcohol and tobacco industry and so on. He experienced bankrupt and lots of failures, but never gave up until he was at an old age. Where he falls over himself, where he picks himself up. While managing corporation, he constantly participated in the politic activities at the same time.
He was sent to prison several times by police because of his aggressive comments on the policy made by local government. The articles written by him were numerous as he joined in about five magazines, which showed his extreme energy. The success of this book is never a coincident that all his experiences provided the thoughts and skills that were needed. It was said that this book had been published many times less than 《Bible》. Now, it is praised as the first full-length novel in the literary history of Britain, which is a valuable contribution to the world literature.
《Robinson Crouse》was created when Defoe was inspired by a true story. In the 1800’s, there was an England sailor whose name was Alison; he once had a conflict with the captain, which was left on a small island. He had noting but sea and sand. With an amazing determination, he lived nearly five years and a half and eventually found and brought home by the famous navigator named Luis in 1771. This event was once a panic in society at that time. He did not do a few special things deserved great respect, instead, what the sailor just did was some things necessary for survival.
In general, he performed negatively rather than positively. But what Defoe described was the represent of new class of capitalism which was an ideal hero who announced the importance of work and development. He was against just enjoying life and content with that people should be full of curiosity，the desire of conquer and the sprit of risk to develop outward, which proved the convention of western ocean civilization. This book highly praised the work sprite and quality of persistence in human being, which had created the new way for western realism.
The main plots of《Robinson Crouse》are introduced as follows:
Robinson Crusoe was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family. As he always wanted to travel around the world by sea, he did not listen to his father’s sincere advice and left his home, becoming a crew of a ship. They were attacked by pirates somewhere near the shore of Africa. After that he became a slaver. The life of being a slaver was actually tough and upset that he could not bear.
Finally, he got a chance and he grasped it and successfully escaped from that place. Fortunately, he was saved by a Spanish vessel on the way to Brazil. When he arrived at Brazil, he started to manage plantation and he made a great fortune. He made up his mind again to make a voyage as some people suggested him sailing to Africa for trading black slave. He was knocked down again by his inclination to go to the sea.
This time was beginning of his unfortunate. The ship encountered a big storm that they had never seen before. With six days’ and nights’ blowing and trembling, the ship was finally all swallowed up. No one had a life exclude Robinson who was rushed to the beach of an unknown island by waves. Although he luckily survived but he at the same time faced the challenge he had never experienced. In order to make a living, he began to transmit things in the ship to the island including grain, cloth, tools and so on. With these materials, he started his life in the island alone. Living such a lonely life that no one talked to him and sometimes he did not say any word at all for about one week, he had to read《bible》to fulfill his sprit every day.
However, with the amazing determination and persistent labor, he built his own house, gained grain, tamed goats and made cloth with animals’ leather. Later, he adopted a wild man as his servant and named him Friday. At the period of time, he experienced plenty of disturbances until a British ship came here and Robinson helped the captain to subdue the rebels. After that, he was picked up back to Britain where he had been away for 28 years. When he went back home, his parents had already passed away. Robinson resumed all the profits of his plantation in Brazil and gave part of them to people who had ever helped him.
One of the critics in Britain said: “If people want to grasp the sprit that is full of energy and confidence, nothing better than Defoe and ，《Robinson Crouse》. That is, as the classic adventure, doer and colonist, Robinson always has its valuable place in the history of didacticism.
Everyone has the same start that he or she comes to the world crying and the same ending that is death. In the western myth, death is cold and chill with a long sickle in his hand
to reap lives and take people away from the noisy world. The relater inwritten by Markus Zusak was the death who wondered around the streets taking away lives as God told him. However, the death was not indifferent. He used his dark eyes staring at some people’s sprits. When he reaped people’s lives, he could become tender as well. There was one Germany girl called “The book thief” by him among all these sprits he focused on.
The girl’s name was Liesel Meminger. She had ever stolen six books totally and written a fiction < the book thief> according her own experience. That was the reason why the death called her “the book thief”. The death was pretty tender to the girl: She lived a long life and finally passed away peacefully in her sweet sleeping. However, the death nearly took everybody’s life one by one around her: First, her father as a member of German Party was sent to the prison. Later, she watched her brother being killed who was only six years old; several years later, her adoptive parents were murdered by Germany soldiers. Rudy, a boy who smiled a lot and ran like a bird was killed as well.
Planes, tanks, bombs and so many other modern products were much more precise and efficient to take away lives, which made the death appear lots of times everyday. Dead bodies, wandering sprits and the busy death were the pictures described by this book. It was something to tell people that no truth in people’s life and death was the final meaning. And because of that the fiction also hid a question that where was the meaning of living when we faced the final existence of death? We can see from the book that the meaning doesn’t lie in the lifestyle of Hitler which is emphasizing struggling by oneself, standing on the top of the privilege and building his plan on dismissing others’ life. Living like this is worse than dyeing directly. Likewise, the meaning of life does not lie in giving up thinking about life, disposing of inner humanism and ignoring and insulting lives which are filled with weakness. These Nazi people ignored Jews who suffered a lot, which resulted in the final ending that their lives gradually became noting with development of the World War Two.
The massage 《The book thief》tries to convey is quite simple: It is the very reason that we can not resist death why the real stuff is the most valuable treasure God gives us. Every life, regardless of Germen or Jew and child or adult deserves to be respected equally. The girl’s name was Liesel Meminger who became an orphan after her father’s being caught, her brother’s death and his mother’s missing. What a great sorrow for such a little girl who was
only 9 years old. Inferiority, stubbornness, flimsiness and loneliness fill up her heart and she always longed for love and safety. She just wanted to get relief and suck the sprit energy from the words in the book stolen by her to prevent herself from loneliness. The life of Max Vandenburg who was a Jew deserved respect. In order to escape the ethnic cleaning, he had no way but lived a life in the basement of Beumer’s house like a mouse that could not exposed to the sunlight. What he eager for was a life with freedom and dignity.
When residents of Hammill Block hid in the bomb shelter for safety, Max took a risk going out basement to see the moon though the window at which he hadn’t looked for nearly 22days without considering the threat from the air. He came back to the basement and wrote the beautiful but desperate sentence：“Stars lighted up my eyes while looking though out the window of Hammill Block.” The rights of being loved, living and freedom combined together and that is the respect to lives. They always shouted to love and concern which has surpassed concept of racial, sexism, age, blood relationship and so on. In, the doer was Liesel’s adoptive father-Hans Hubermann.
He respected every life. He helped his adopted daughter to scatter the nightmare, strake her sorrow, teach her writing and reading and give her endless love. In spite of knowing about the dander of taking Jews in, he decided to protect Max Vandenburg as much as he could. When he watched Jews were captured by Germen on the street, he couldn’t help approaching and giving the old Jew a piece of loaf in his hand. He was beat heavily by the Germany soldiers because of that. The same thing happened when the person was Leisel’s adoptive mother, Rose Hubermann who had this kind of love as well.
She yet couldn’t know a lot about her daughter’s inner world like his husband did, but she could hold her daughter’s hands firmly while the plane throwing bombs. The smart, strong and bold woman who brought the hot food to Max at the first time accepted him with her real action. This kind of parents had this kind of kid who’s like Liesel. She read books for people who hid in the shelter when bombs exploded outside in order to comfort them. She lived with Max and Bowman’s. They loved each other, cared each other and enjoyed mutual respect and emotion, finally becoming relatives who were bone of the bone and fresh as close as fresh and blood. She changed this kind of emotion as the deep sympathy to the whole Jews.
In, it was the war brought by Hitler that killed numerous people like the couple of Bowman as one hand, on the other hand, it was the people who ought to have been already forgotten that survived with the help of Bowman. They were “the book thief”.
Liesel, Max and so on. On the one side, there was nonsense death and destruction going on, on the other side, love that resisted death and subdued death was being created. This was such a complex world that made death confused and moved deeply.