In Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, why does Crusoe want to catalog (briefly) the events of every day?Why not just let time pass and allow the weeks and...

In Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, I believe
that Crusoe starts a journal for much the same reasons that he builds furniture, grows
food, improves his "home," and tries to domesticate the goats: he is doing his very best
to act as if he were within civilized society so as not to lose his mind with loneliness
and worry.

When Crusoe first arrives on the island, his
first concern is gathering as many supplies, tools and materials from the wrecked ship
as possible. His plan is to do his best to survive until he is rescued. This process
takes a long time and requires a great deal of work. After there is nothing else to
collect, he begins to build a substantial shelter, manages the supplies (such as
separating gunpowder so it doesn't all blow up), makes furniture, finds a source of
fresh water, and goes about learning ways to feed himself. These things
also take a long time. He eventually learns to make candles so that
he does not need to go to sleep when the sun goes down. In essence, Crusoe does his best
to create some semblance of a homestead, which not only protects him and adds to his
comfort, but also keeps him occupied. When he can no longer do this, he sometimes
searches for rescue; seeing no ships on the horizon, he cries. Keeping a journal keeps
track of the days, but helps give him new direction as well. He
writes:

Some
days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and got all that I could out of
her, yet I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain and looking out
to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail, please
myself with the hopes of it, and then after looking steadily, till I was almost blind,
lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my
folly.

But having gotten over these things in some measure,
and having settled my household staff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and
all as handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my journal; of which I shall here
give you the copy (though in it will be told all these particulars over again) as long
as it lasted; for having no more ink, I was forced to leave it
off.

Crusoe is not a strong
man when he arrives on the island. He is a member of the comfortable middle class in
England. He is in no way prepared for the demands of being stranded alone on a deserted
island. In the face of crisis, however, he proves that he has inner- fortitude in rising
to each occasion in order to survive. He seems to have a good deal of common sense and
he knows himself. It seems that he quickly realizes that attending to his physical
comfort is paramount. Once he has that well in hand, his mental and emotional states
must also be seen to. The journal helps Crusoe focus on civilized behavior, which keeps
him from going insane.