The Price of Bananas

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, journalist, political pamphleteer, and novelist who played a foundational role in the development of the English novel. Published in 1719, his masterpiece 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe' was inspired by the real-life ordeal of Scottish mariner Alexander Selkirk, who spent over four years cast away on an uninhabited Pacific island.

Defoe introduced a groundbreaking literary technique known as verisimilitude—the appearance of absolute truth and authenticity achieved through minute, diary-like chronological details, practical inventories, precise dates, and realistic psychological reflections. 'A Shipwrecked Sailor' is a carefully chosen excerpt from this legendary novel, edited specifically for the WBBSE Class 9 curriculum.

The story commences with dramatic chronological precision:

• The Date of Disaster: On 30th September 1659, a dreadful hurricane struck Robinson Crusoe's ship off the coast of South America.
• The Shipwreck: The vessel was driven onto a shallow sandbank. Ferocious, towering waves smashed against the hull, tearing the ship apart.
• The Fate of the Crew: All eleven men on board—the entire ship's company—were hurled into the turbulent sea and drowned. Robinson Crusoe alone was miraculously carried forward by a gigantic wave and hurled onto the rocky shoreline, bruised, exhausted, and half-dead.

Finding himself on dry land, Crusoe's initial ecstasy of surviving quickly turned to cold, paralyzing terror. He walked along the shore, searching desperately for any sign of his comrades, but found only three discarded hats, one cap, and two mismatched shoes washed up by the tide.

When Crusoe woke the next morning, the violent storm had passed and the sky was clear. The sea was calm. Looking out across the water, he was astonished to see that the shipwreck had not completely sunk; instead, the morning tide had lifted it and driven it onto a sandbank scarcely a mile from the shore.

Realizing that the ship contained precious food and supplies that could sustain his life, Crusoe stripped off his soaked clothes, plunged into the warm sea, and swam out to the stranded vessel. Finding a hanging chain, he scrambled aboard the battered deck.

Crusoe's immediate dilemma was how to transport heavy provisions from the ship to the shore without a boat. Demonstrating immense practical ingenuity, he set about building a sturdy transport raft:

1. He collected spare topmasts, yards, and large planks of timber lying on the ship's deck.
2. He lowered them over the ship's side into the water and tied each beam together securely with strong ropes.
3. He laid several short pieces of wood across them to form a flat, stable wooden deck capable of bearing significant cargo weight.

Over several perilous salvage expeditions before an incoming storm finally pulverized the wreck, Crusoe systematically stripped the ship of every useful item:

With his supplies safely piled on the shore, Crusoe knew he needed a permanent, secure home that satisfied four critical environmental conditions:

1. Health and Fresh Water: Proximity to a running spring or fresh water stream.
2. Shelter from the Torrid Heat: Protection from the scorching midday tropical sun.
3. Security: Complete defense against wild animals and hostile human beings.
4. A View of the Ocean: A commanding vista overlooking the sea, so that if any European vessel sailed past, he could light a signal fire for rescue.

Crusoe located a small, level green plain on the side of a rising hill. Directly behind this flat clearing stood a steep, hollowed-out rock wall resembling the front of a cliff.

• The Artificial Cave: Into the hollow hollow of the rock, Crusoe dug out a cave to serve as his dark, cool kitchen and storehouse (সেলারের মতো ভাণ্ডার).
• The Double Tent: On the flat turf in front of the hollow rock, he pitched a large tent made of salvaged canvas sails. To guard against torrential tropical downpours, he constructed a double tent—erecting a smaller inner tent inside a much larger outer tent, and draping the exterior with thick waterproof tarpaulins.
• The Elevated Hammock: Inside this tent, he suspended a ship's hammock, sleeping elevated off the ground to avoid dampness and insects.

To guarantee complete safety, Crusoe constructed an ingenious defensive perimeter around his tent:

After settling his physical survival, Crusoe confronted a profound psychological threat: the loss of time. In the unbroken monotony of solitary island life, without church bells, clocks, or social interaction, he feared he would soon forget the days of the week, Sabbath Sundays, and the passing of months.

To prevent this, he erected a massive, smooth wooden post shaped like a cross on the beach where he had first washed ashore. Across the main cross-beam, he carved with his pocket knife in bold capital letters:

• Daily Notches: Every morning upon waking, he cut a small notch with his knife on the sides of the square post.
• Sundays: Every seventh notch was carved twice as long as the ordinary notches, marking the day of rest and devotion.
• Months: Every first day of a new month, he made a notch twice as long again.

Through this meticulous record-keeping, Crusoe maintained a flawless calendar of days, weeks, months, and years throughout his decades of isolation.

During his early months on the island, bouts of deep melancholy, loneliness, and despair threatened to crush Crusoe's spirit. To restore his mental balance, he took up a salvaged quill and paper and composed a rational, commercial balance sheet of his condition, dividing his situation into two parallel columns like an accountant balancing debits and credits:

This rational exercise had a transformative psychological impact. Crusoe concluded that "there is scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it." This stoic philosophy enabled him to overcome bitterness and live with purposeful dignity.

In WBBSE Class 9 English, the grammar syllabus highlights Clause Identification and Synthesis of Sentences:

• 1. Noun Clauses (বিশেষ্য খণ্ডবাক্য): Functions as the subject or object of a verb in a sentence.
  Example: "I realized that I was the only survivor." (Object of the verb 'realized').
• 2. Adjective / Relative Clauses (বিশেষণ খণ্ডবাক্য): Qualifies or describes a preceding noun or pronoun (antecedent).
  Example: "I discovered the ship which was stranded on a sandbank." (Qualifies the noun 'ship').
• 3. Adverbial Clauses (ক্রিয়া-বিশেষণ খণ্ডবাক্য): Modifies a verb, showing time, place, reason, or condition.
  Example: "I climbed into the tree because I feared wild beasts." (Adverbial clause of reason modifying 'climbed').
• 4. Complex to Simple Sentence Transformations:
  • Complex: "When morning came, the sea was calm."
    Simple: "With the coming of morning, the sea was calm." (or "At daybreak, the sea was calm.")
  • Complex: "He found a post which he erected on the beach."
    Simple: "He erected a found post on the beach." (or "Finding a post, he erected it on the beach.")
  • Complex: "Though I was alone, I was thankful to be alive."
    Simple: "In spite of being alone, I was thankful to be alive."