61 pages • 2 hours read
Johann David WyssThe Swiss Family Robinson
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1812A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “A New Home”
The Robinsons decide to move inland, away from the heat of the open beach. Robinson plans to build a bridge across the stream that separates the shore from the shadier woods on the other side. Robinson, Fritz, and Ernest gather lumber that washed ashore from the shipwreck while Elizabeth fashions bags and baskets to haul their supplies to their new location. The next morning, they load their supplies on the pack animals and set off, sheep and mastiffs in tow. Along the way, the boys kill a porcupine and a wildcat and discuss how best to utilize the meat and the hides.
Once they arrive at their destination—a copse of mangrove trees—the Robinsons set up camp and formulate a plan for a treehouse. Using bamboo and reeds, they fashion a rope ladder and fasten it to a high branch. Robinson climbs up and clears branches to make room for the house. Back at the beach, they salvage enough lumber from the wrecked ship to begin construction. The donkey and the cow haul the heavier pieces back to camp, and Robinson and Fritz spend the rest of the day building a floor and walls. They sling a large sailcloth over the top for a roof and hang their hammocks. Their treehouse is now ready for occupancy.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Ernest and Me”
After their first night in the treehouse, the Robinsons hold a worship service and then spend the rest of the day at leisure activities. Robinson crafts arrows out of porcupine quills, Ernest shoot some birds, and they all name familiar landmarks for easy reference, including “Flamingo Marsh” and “Jackal River.” They name the treehouse “Falconhurst.”
The following day, the family explores further upstream and discovers a field of potatoes and clusters of other useful plants: aloe, vanilla, and a bush Robinson identifies as karatas. Of karatas, Robinson says, “Its leaf filaments make good thread, and the leaves are good to crush and put on burns” (83). They make return to their original camp on the beach and retrieve the last of the supplies, which includes butter, salt, ammunition, and the ducks and geese.
Early the next morning, Robinson takes Ernest out on a solitary expedition “in hopes of curing his laziness” (84). As they gather more wood from the beach and rig a sled for hauling heavy supplies, Robinson cautions his son about the importance of decisiveness in emergency situations. On the way home, they encounter and kill a large rodent which they identify as a kangaroo. They eat part of it, and Elizabeth figures out how to preserve the rest.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Bread”
Robinson and Fritz return to the shipwreck to collect additional supplies including mattresses, more tools and ammunition, and “all the furniture, doors, window frames, bolts and locks in the captain’s cabin” (96). They also find fruit trees, sacks of vegetables, and grains in the hold of the ship. On the way back, Fritz harpoons a sea turtle which tows them to shore. While Elizabeth is skeptical about eating turtle meat, Robinson assures her, “Gourmets pay handsomely to get it” (99). Their final task of the day is to haul the mattresses back to Falconhurst where they enjoy a turtle dinner and a sound night’s sleep.
The next morning, Robinson and the boys discover a small, disassembled boat aboard the ship. Unable to find room for it among the other supplies on their “tub boat,” they leave it behind and head back to shore where they see a flock of penguins congregating on the beach. Jack eagerly leaps into the midst of the flock swinging a stick and fells half a dozen. They take the dead penguins—and a few live ones—back to camp. Later that day, the family grinds cassava roots into flour, extracts the poison, and bakes bread. Using the chickens and a monkey named Knips as guinea pigs, they feed them the first batch of bread. When they find them alive and well the next morning, the family enjoys a breakfast of bread cakes and milk.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Pinnace”
Determined to salvage the small boat, Robinson and his three eldest sons return to the wreck hoping to assemble the craft, which is known as a pinnace. Unfortunately, the pieces are heavy and not easily accessible, and there is very little room to work in the hold. Undeterred, they resolve to go back to the ship every day until the pinnace is assembled. Several days later, they complete the small boat but have no way of getting it out of the hold and into the water. Robinson engineers an explosive device and blows a hole in the side of the hull. They are then able to maneuver the pinnace into the water. After completing the mast and rigging—and mounting two small cannons—they sail the boat back to shore.
Once back at camp, they find that Elizabeth and Franz planted a vegetable garden. The following day, the family plants an orchard of fruit trees while Robinson makes bolas—a rope with weights on each end used as a throwing weapon—and instructs his sons to get some exercise. Later, the Robinsons gather materials to make dishes and utensils in nearby Calabash Wood. They also collect a large land bird known as a bustard along the way as “a valuable addition to our flock” (120). They spend the afternoon “cutting, carving and hollowing dishes, bowls, cups, jars, and platters” (122). Before the journey home, they ensnare and kill an iguana. Back at Falconhurst, the family dines on iguana meat and potatoes.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
As the Robinsons grow accustomed to their new home, their unmatched survival skills allow them to create a living environment with nearly all of the comforts of civilization: a cozy treehouse with soft mattresses, enough firepower to hunt most of the wild game on the island, and a perfectly balanced diet of meat, fruit, vegetables, and bread—butter included. With the exception of the random encounter with an unfamiliar animal, their time on the island is remarkably free of conflict. To modern readers expecting some degree of conflict, the ease with which the Robinson clan navigates this unfamiliar territory comes may seem needlessly tame and unrealistic. Again though, the author mindfully forgoes literary realism in favor of lessons about the importance of preparedness and resourcefulness.
While it’s understandable that the family must hunt and kill to survive, the abandon with which they shoot and bludgeon animals to death with no moral reservation is startling, at least to a modern sensibility. Isolated from the dirty work of butchering their own food, most people in developed nations are disconnected from the process of food preparation. They see a burger, not a slaughtered cow. Perhaps Europeans in the late 1700s were accustomed to this kind of work. Indeed, the Robinsons—even ten-year-old Jack—are perfectly at home skinning a dead animal, cutting the meat from the bone, and tanning the hide. They do so gleefully and enthusiastically, and, apart from the occasional admonition to not kill anything for sport, the Robinsons’ strict morality doesn’t extend to much of the island’s wildlife. This is consistent with 18th century Christian attitudes toward animal, which cite Biblical scripture in asserting man’s dominion over non-humans. At the same time, the Robinsons’ resourcefulness in using every part of slain animals reflects a responsible stewardship of their environment.
