SIDEKICK: Friday
FAITHFUL COMPANION OF: Robinson Crusoe
The lone human survivor of a shipwreck, the hardy and resourceful Robinson Crusoe manages to carve out a semblance of civilized existence on a remote island he calls Despair. His isolation is broken when he rescues and befriends an unfortunate native soul who has escaped a visiting cannibal tribe. Crusoe is intent on remaking his new companion Friday (so named after the day on which he was discovered): to that end, he teaches him English, converts him to Christianity, and introduces him to the concepts of modern agriculture. Friday is a largely generic character — the noble savage redeemed by Western values — but the phrase “My man Friday” (or “gal Friday”) is still used to describe any particular valuable underling.
INTERESTING FACT: The book’s complete original title was: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un‐inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely delivered by Pirates.