Robinson devotes a substantial portion of the narrative to describing his surroundings. In line with the character's rationalism, much of the imagery is topographic in nature. Instead of dwelling on descriptions of his environment as it looks in front of him, from the ground up, Robinson often describes the setting in terms of how it would look on a diagram or map. As a result, it becomes possible for the reader to visualize the story from above, cartographically. This style of imagery is related to Robinson's emphasis on numbers, details, and precision, as well as to the novel's nautical atmosphere. The reader can find an example of this in how he maps his escape from Morocco in Chapter 3:
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I chang’d my course, and steer’d directly south and by east, bending my course a little toward the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair fresh gale of wind, and a smooth quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day at three a clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of Sallee.
Mapmaking was an essential tool, as well as weapon, of imperialism. Robinson's rational approach to his surroundings shapes the novel's imagery; he verbally maps the physical world around him as he moves through it. His descriptions of the journey that results in the shipwreck in Chapter 4 also revolve around their cartographic movements more than visual imagery:
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coast, when they came about 10 or 12 degrees of northern latitude, which it seems was the manner of their course in those days. We had very good weather, only excessive hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we came the height of Cape St. Augustino, from whence keeping farther off at sea we lost sight of land, and steer’d as if we was bound for the isle Fernand de Noronha, holding our course N. E. by N. and leaving those isles on the east.
The cartographic imagery also extends to his life on the island, where he offers the reader precise information about hills, forest areas, coves—as well as precise information, by way of the cardinal directions, about where these topographical features exist in relation to one another. Robinson's method of describing his surroundings gives insight into how he thinks. A character shaped by the reverberations of the Age of Exploration, Robinson does not exactly fill the reader with inspiration to compose a poem about his setting, but instead supplies the reader with the information necessary for sketching it—with quite a level of precision—on a map.
Robinson devotes a substantial portion of the narrative to describing his surroundings. In line with the character's rationalism, much of the imagery is topographic in nature. Instead of dwelling on descriptions of his environment as it looks in front of him, from the ground up, Robinson often describes the setting in terms of how it would look on a diagram or map. As a result, it becomes possible for the reader to visualize the story from above, cartographically. This style of imagery is related to Robinson's emphasis on numbers, details, and precision, as well as to the novel's nautical atmosphere. The reader can find an example of this in how he maps his escape from Morocco in Chapter 3:
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I chang’d my course, and steer’d directly south and by east, bending my course a little toward the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair fresh gale of wind, and a smooth quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day at three a clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of Sallee.
Mapmaking was an essential tool, as well as weapon, of imperialism. Robinson's rational approach to his surroundings shapes the novel's imagery; he verbally maps the physical world around him as he moves through it. His descriptions of the journey that results in the shipwreck in Chapter 4 also revolve around their cartographic movements more than visual imagery:
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coast, when they came about 10 or 12 degrees of northern latitude, which it seems was the manner of their course in those days. We had very good weather, only excessive hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we came the height of Cape St. Augustino, from whence keeping farther off at sea we lost sight of land, and steer’d as if we was bound for the isle Fernand de Noronha, holding our course N. E. by N. and leaving those isles on the east.
The cartographic imagery also extends to his life on the island, where he offers the reader precise information about hills, forest areas, coves—as well as precise information, by way of the cardinal directions, about where these topographical features exist in relation to one another. Robinson's method of describing his surroundings gives insight into how he thinks. A character shaped by the reverberations of the Age of Exploration, Robinson does not exactly fill the reader with inspiration to compose a poem about his setting, but instead supplies the reader with the information necessary for sketching it—with quite a level of precision—on a map.
For most of the book, Robinson does not exhibit much interest in his own appearance. His person and clothing seem to be very low-level concerns for him, aside from their role in his survival and most basic needs. When he has lived on the island for a while, however, the reader can't help but wonder what he must look like. And, sure enough, the narrator uses imagery to describe Robinson's appearance in Chapter 13:
"Be pleas'd to take a sketch of my figure as follows,
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s skin, with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me, as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck [...] I had a short jacket of goat-skin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of my thighs; and a pair of open-knee’d breeches of the same, the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either side, that like pantaloons it reach’d to the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a pair of some-things, I scarce know what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatter-dashes; but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes."
This passage demonstrates that he is content with himself for getting so much utility out of the animal skins he has acquired. Earlier in the novel, he claims that he is a bad "tayler" and that his clothes are "wretchedly made," but he nonetheless seems proud of the clothes he has been able to construct for himself.
The passage also underlines that he is aware of how silly he would look if he were among other people. Writing that "[he] had so few to observe [him], that it was of no manner of consequence," Robinson evidently appreciates living in a world where pragmatism and utility reign supreme—in a world where concern for appearance and proper dress do not get in the way of necessity and self-improvement. If anyone in England met someone who looked like he did, he writes that it "must either have frighted them, or rais'd a great deal of laughter." Having lived in isolation for this long, Robinson enjoys existing beyond the reaches of society's customs and expectations.
Finally, the passage also reminds the reader that Robinson is highly conscious of his reader and his narrative responsibilities. He knows that there must be a significant amount of curiosity surrounding his person and his outfit after he has been living on the island for more than two decades. Devoting quite a bit of space to his descriptions of his clothing items and their functions, Robinson takes care to answer the reader's questions. In addition, he admits that he derives some amusement from looking at himself and imagining himself back in society, and shares this amusement with his reader.
