(1) Robinson Crusoe is all real concerns of its author's time: people in their struggle to overcome the natural or social environment. The novel has a very strong verisimilitude.
The significance of this novel: ① Robinson Crusoe is an expression of the bourgeois qualities of individualism d private enterprise. Robinson Crusoe is a new man—a man sure of himself and sure of being able to establish himself anywhere in the world. He is a man of new age, in which doubt and uncertainty are replaced by hope and confidence. ② In describing Robinson's life on the island, Defoe glorifies human labor. ③ Robinson is the enterpriser of his age. He is ready to command nature, his enemy, and to found his colony beyond the sea. He is a merchant-adventurer, interested in material profit, so Robinson's every voyage is connected with some commercial enterprise. ④ This novel is an embodiment of the spirit of individual enterprise and colonial expansion of the rising bourgeoisie. ⑤ Defoe's bourgeois outlook shows itself in the fact that he doesn't condemn Negro-slavery in his book.

(2) Robinson Crusoe's perseverance in spending months making a canoe, and in practicing pottery making until he gets it right, is praiseworthy. Additionally, his resourcefulness in building a home, dairy, grape arbor, country house, and goat stable from practically nothing is clearly remarkable. Moreover, Crusoe is never interested in portraying himself as a hero in his own narration. But Crusoe's admirable qualities must be weighed against the flaws in his character. Crusoe seems incapable of deep feelings, as shown by his cold account of leaving his family. Moreover, as an individual personality, Crusoe is rather dull. His precise and deadpan style of narration works well for recounting the process of canoe building, but it tends to drain the excitement from events that should be thrilling.