The Swiss Family Robinson · Chapter
XXXVI explained
The family completes their rock dwelling (Arcadia) before the rainy season, constructing internal divisions, plastering walls, and making carpets from goat hair and wool.
What happens
The family completes their rock dwelling (Arcadia) before the rainy season, constructing internal divisions, plastering walls, and making carpets from goat hair and wool. They establish a chapel for Sunday worship, and the father builds a boat from tree bark. They also fortify a narrow pass with trees and a drawbridge to deter savages and contain pigs. The chapter reflects on their contentment, industry, and gratitude toward Providence.
Themes in this chapter
Resourcefulness and Industry
The family manufactures carpets, a boat, and home furnishings from available materials through persistent labor.
Gratitude and Contentment
The family expresses deep thankfulness for Providence and finds happiness in their simple, industrious life.
Providence and Faith
Regular Sunday worship in the crystal chapel and repeated acknowledgments of divine guidance and goodness.
Characters to notice
- Father
Leads the construction of the boat, fortifications, and home improvements; preaches sermons in the chapel.
- Mother
Sews sailcloth for carpets, operates spinning-wheel and loom, sings with a sweet voice in concerts.
- Jack
Helps with boat construction and fortifications; plays a flageolet and has a natural inclination for music.
- Francis
Also plays a flageolet and joins in musical concerts with his mother.
- Ernest
Assists in various tasks, including the boat project and fortifications.
- Fritz
Dispatched to Tent-House to fetch the sledge for boat completion.
Key passages
“We had an inexpressible longing to find ourselves domiciliated and at leisure to converse together on the subject of all the wondrous benefits bestowed upon us by an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence!”
They eagerly anticipated settling in and discussing the many blessings given by a caring Providence.
Expresses gratitude and faith.
“We thus produced a very tolerable substitute for that enviable article of European comfort, a carpet”
They made a decent replacement for a European carpet.
Demonstrates resourcefulness.
“Divine service was performed in it regularly every Sunday: I had raised a sort of pulpit, from which I pronounced such discourses as I had framed for the instruction of my affectionate group of auditors.”
They held church services every Sunday, with the father preaching from a makeshift pulpit.
Highlights religious practice.