Perseverance is the persistence in carrying on with something despite the delay in achieving success. The theme of perseverance in runs through both ‘Robinson Crusoe’ by Daniel Defoe and ‘Alive’ by Piers Paul Read.
‘Robinson Crusoe’ is a fiction adventure novel about a young man who manages to survive for many years on an island before returning home to Europe. However; ‘Alive’ is a literary non-fiction text that provides a detailed account of a rugby team along with their friends and family, who managed to survive for 72 days and get off the mountains after their plane crashed into the Andes in 1972.

In Alive, perseverance is shown through the extract many times, in trying to maintain a society up in the mountains, and perseverance to eat the flesh of their friends through reasoning with their conscience. In contrast, the extracts from Robinson Crusoe show perseverance is shown through Robinson feeling desolate and isolated on the island but manages to persevere through the reasoning with conscience and religion when he tells himself he is in a better condition than he could be in. In the second extract I have chosen from Robinson Crusoe is where he starts to lose faith, and he feels empty and alone in his deserted island, but then he regains his faith in God through reading the bible, which gives him strength to persevere.

The writer’s use of language changing over time, settings and the reasoning with characters conscience through religion and their actions demonstrate the theme of perseverance throughout the extracts. There is a difference in the context for both texts; this is because Defoe is writing for well educated middle-class people that have a good understanding of travelling at sea as Defoe uses technical seamen terms. Defoe uses religion throughout the novel because of the heavy use of religion in society at the time. Defoe also uses his