The religious dimension of Robinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe's discovery of the work ethic on the small island goes hand in hand with a spiritual awakening. Robinson Crusoe is not a very deep religious thinker, although religion is part of his education and transformation. He claims to read the Bible and is willing to quote it from time to time. But he doesn't question this and doesn't get involved in the narrative or the attractions of the characters in the stories. The Bible to him seems to be something like a Dale Carnegie handbook of maxims for keeping work on schedule and for stifling any possible complaints or desires for a different situation. However, the religious dimension is central to Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe's interpretation of his life links financial success directly and repeatedly with his growth in religious awareness. This is not an intellectual conversion but, simply put, the awareness of having received, in some way, God's grace and of being under His care. The growing profitability of his efforts is evidence of that spiritual reward. This awareness fills him with a sense of guilt for his previous life and a great desire to free himself from it. The desire to be freed from that sense of guilt, in fact, is much stronger than Robinson Crusoe's desire to be freed from the island. Now I looked back on my past life with such horror, and my sins seemed so terrible to me, that my soul sought nothing from God but deliverance from the burden of guilt which weighed upon all my comfort. As for my solitary life; it was nothing; I didn't even pray to be freed from it or think about it; there was nothing to consider compared to this; and I added this part here in... middle of the paper...... The inhabitants of the New World were there to be ignored, like Friday's father, used as servants, like Friday, or killed, like cannibals. The important part of the Puritan encounter with the New World was what Robinson Crusoe shows us, the spiritual test of the solitary Protestant spirit, a lifelong test in which he achieved success (or the closest thing to a manifestation of success). trampling his will on the new land, demarcating the territory as his property with backbreaking labor, without any concession to anything or anyone, least of all to the land and its original inhabitants. That was the Puritan's calling; this is why God placed us on this earth: to use available material and people for our own personal uses, ignore what doesn't fit those plans, and quickly and ruthlessly remove anything that gets in our way.