Daniel Dufoe's "Robinson Crusoe" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island", have many similar themes, symbols, and action sequences. From sea-travel, pirates, guns, and fortune-seekers to time, survival, and the Bible, these stories contain a wide range of similarities. We even see an uncanny resemblance between the mutinies found in both stories, and the roles (or lack thereof) of women in each story. By comparing and contrasting these two adventure novels, readers can learn how the authors affected the future of the action-adventure genre of literature.
One similarity between the stories is that both "Robinson Crusoe" and "Treasure Island" have a lot of action involving the use of guns. The men who have the guns believe they are the ones wielding power. In Robinson Crusoe, Friday has never before experienced the technology of firepower. This gives the reader a chance to see how someone who is naive to this technology would react to the use of guns. "Though Friday opts to take shelter behind Crusoe's gun, his relationship with that weapon remains unsteady. While he appears to place his trust in Crusoe, he suspects that real power does not lie with the man but with his mysterious weapon," (Loar, 2006). Friday's suspicion of the gun's power over the man seems to be a true observation. Friday realizes that when the weapon has power to kill things with the simple pull of a trigger, the man wielding it becomes much more dangerous due to the temptation of such power. In Treasure Island, guns are a large part of the battle between the captain's crew and the mutineers. When the adults give young Jim a gun in preparation for the impending mutiny, the gun is used to even the playing field between the boy and the men. By giving Jim a gun, the men are also giving him a test of self-control. It takes will-power and morality to not abuse the power of a fire-arm, as we have seen Crusoe learn when he is on his island with the cannibals.
