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Crusoe

Literary Character
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The protagonist and sole inhabitant of Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe; stranded on a Caribbean island, he becomes a symbol of human resilience, survival, and colonial enterprise.

Detailed Definition
Crusoe is the famous shipwrecked survivor from Robinson Crusoe, a classic novel about isolation, survival, and discovery. In poetry, the name often evokes loneliness and the search for signs of human presence, as it does here.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Crusoe on his island” recalls Daniel Defoe’s castaway surviving through labor and isolation; “I was Crusoe among apartment windows” adapts the character as a metaphor for urban loneliness; Elizabeth Bishop’s “Crusoe in England” gives the figure a reflective modern afterlife; Literary allusion lets Crusoe suggest self-reliance, colonialism, solitude, or longing for company
Additional Notes
The name in "Crusoe on his island" refers to a specific literary character that many readers may need to identify.; Found in the poem, Footprints in the Cosmos by Richard
Also Known As
Robinson Crusoe castaway shipwrecked sailor solitary adventurer
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