The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
XXII: Further Sequel of the Above Story, and How Simon Meron Left the Island and This Life, and How Simplicissimus Remained the Sole Lord of the Island explained
Simplicissimus and Simon Meron establish a self-sufficient life on the island, creating tools, salt, pottery, and clothing from natural resources.
What happens
Simplicissimus and Simon Meron establish a self-sufficient life on the island, creating tools, salt, pottery, and clothing from natural resources. Simon Meron develops a habit of drinking palm wine, which eventually leads to his death. Simplicissimus buries him and writes an epitaph, then resumes a hermit's life, grateful for God's providence.
Themes in this chapter
Folly and Wisdom
Simon Meron's excessive drinking of palm wine, despite Simplicissimus's warnings, leads to his untimely death, illustrating the folly of overindulgence.
Fortune and Fate
Simplicissimus reflects on the uncertainty of human life and God's providence, accepting his fate as the sole inhabitant of the island.
Religion and Morality
Simplicissimus maintains Christian modesty by making clothes, thanks God for His gifts, and wishes to share abundance with the needy, showing moral and religious devotion.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
Becomes the sole lord of the island after Simon Meron's death, resumes a hermit's life, and reflects on God's providence.
- Simon Meron
Helps establish the island's household, invents methods for making salt and pottery, but dies from excessive drinking of palm wine.
Key passages
“And so, as I have said, we lived like the first men in the golden age, when a bountiful heaven produced for them all good things from the earth without labour on their part; but even as in this world there is no life so sweet and happy that is not at times made bitter by the gall of suffering, so happened it with us: for the richer we grew daily in larder and cellar, the more threadbare did our clothes from day to day become, till at last they rotted on our bodies.”
We lived like the first people in a golden age, with heaven providing everything without work, but our happiness was marred by our clothes rotting away as our food supplies grew.
Highlights the contrast between abundance and the decay of their clothing, a central problem in the chapter.
“So I became lord of the whole island and began again a hermit’s life, for which I had now not only opportunity more than enough but also a fixed desire and purpose thereto.”
I became the sole ruler of the island and resumed a hermit's life, which I now had both ample opportunity and a strong desire to do.
Marks the transition to Simplicissimus's solitary existence after Simon Meron's death.