Daniel Defoe was born as the son of James Foe, a butcher of Stroke Newington, whose strict Puritanism occasionally comes out in Defoe's own writing....Although his Nonconformist father wanted Daniel for the ministry, Defoe decidedly plunged into politics and trade, traveling extensively in Europe. Indeed, Defoe was a man who had ideas of his own and who wanted, perhaps very much like his character Moll Flanders, to become a success.

  Aside from his openly political works, Daniel Defoe is known as one of the first authors to write stories about believable characters in realistic situations using simple prose. He achieved literary immortality when he published Robinson Crusoe in 1719, which was based in part on the memoirs of true voyagers and castaways.

  But it was actually during his later life that Defoe seemed to focus on novels rather than on political pamphlets. At the age of 62 he published Moll Flanders, a Journal of the Plague Year, and Colonel Jack....The author's choice of a female protagonist in Moll Flanders demonstrated his interest in the female experience which seems to closely resemble the struggles encountered by many people, including his own self.

  In close, Daniel Defoe was a man who looked at his culture and the political society around him...and saw many errors. He was a man who had experienced financial struggles and social struggles throughout his life. He wrote numerous political statements and argued for many different changes. And, when he altered his perspective, and began writing fiction, he clearly put a lot of his opinions and perspectives concerning the society within the characters, and the experiences of the characters. Much like his character Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe himself had experienced incredible poverty during the course of his lifetime. He had dealt with the same social and economic classes experienced by Moll, and he was not altogether content with those realities. These dealings now live forever in the pages of his writing...