Changes

Based on an analysis of the two Crusoe novels it appears that there were many figures who inspired the writer. It appears that Serrano, Knox, and Pitman, and their adventures all helped to inspire the creation of famous castaway, and there may even have been others. There is also the possibility that Defoe may have been influenced by novels and even travelogues when writing his most successful work. To conclude it seems that the Robinson Crusoe was not based on a single figure but is a composite of several other real-life castaways.

====Further Reading====

Ellis, Frank H., and Frank Hale Ellis, eds. Twentieth-century interpretations of Robinson Crusoe: a collection of critical essays (London, Prentice-Hall, 1969).