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Treasure Island: An Analysis
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is a tale of adventure filled with exciting characters and set in exotic locales. This paper will present background information on both the novel and its author and analyze and discuss the major characters, themes and motifs. Stevenson was born the only child of a prosperous middle-class family in Edinburgh, Scotland, in November 1850. His father, Thomas, was a civil engineer who specialized in the design and construction of lighthouses. His mother, Margaret, was the daughter of a well-known clergyman (Livesey). Probably the two most important influences during Stevenson’s childhood were his family’s strict Presbyterian religion and his own poor health. During his frequent bouts with tuberculosis, his loving nurse, Alison Cunningham, liked to entertain him with stories of bloody deeds, hellfire, and damnation. This rendered him a frightened, guilt-ridden child and also apparently something of a little prude, a characteristic he certainly outgrew by the time he reached his late teens (Harvey).
Stevenson found the inspiration to write Treasure Island after drawing a treasure map with his twelve-year-old son, Lloyd (Sandison). Written as a memoir, the work opens with the line “Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17-, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn, and the brown old Seamen, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof” (Stevenson 10). This opening befits Stevenson who had a “devotion to the art of letters and to the less sophisticated, though not necessarily childish, life of adventure” (Kiely 20). Stevenson would later reveal that the first fifteen chapters of Treasure Island were written in as many days (Swinnerton 64).
The main character of the story, a boy by the name of Jim Hawkins serves as the first-person narrator. The son of an innkeeper, Jim begins the tale with the arrival of a salty old ex-pirate to his family’s inn, the Admiral Benbow Inn. Jim is portrayed as very humble, never boasting about his many exciting and impressive deeds.
Ship-Trap Island is a long dreaded place. Rainsford is a hunter that falls off his boat into a rocky sea wakes up in late day on the shore of Ship-Trap island. On the island, is an immense jungle and a Death Swamp. Night was trying to see “through a blanket”. The sea broke upon the rocky shore. On the island there was an enormous building on a high bluff. General Zaroff welcomed Rainsford but later threw him out into the vast jungle to be hunted. Rainsford travelled around the island fighting for his life. Around the jungle and swamp, Rainsford set three traps for General Zaroff. One was called the Malay Mancatcher. He balanced a dead tree on a living tree. One the trigger was set off; the dead tree fell on the shoulder of the general. The second one was the Burmese Tiger Pit. He dug a large hole and filled it with stakes, then covered the hole with grass. One of the dogs died in the pit. His final trap was one he learned in Uganda. He tied a knife to the end of a young tree and tied it back with a plant. The knife killed Ivan. After he finished his final trap, Rainsford ran to the edge of the cliffs and jumped off into the rocky ocean. Later Rainsford appeared in General Zaroff’s bedroom in the mansion and ended up killing him, and Rainsford slept in his large, comfortable bed.
However, with the sighting of land, new worries and troubles are in the air. The pirates are not content with their leadership—a doctor, a wealthy man, and a weak captain. With land and mutiny in view, most of the crew heads to shore and lines are drawn for the standoff that is to come; Jim sided with the “leadership” and a few other faithful crew members, and the other side was the rest of the crew led by Long John Silver (an infamous pirate and the antagonist of the novel). With drawn lines and already many deaths, the first days were eventful and full of excitement. On Treasure Island, tensions were high as were the death rate and the number of those wounded.
Huckleberry Finn provides the narrative voice of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and his honest voice combined with his personal vulnerabilities reveal the different levels of the Grangerfords’ world.
Huckleberry Finn, a young boy from St. Petersburg’, is able to disregard the typical views of African Americans and see them as the humans they are. When Huck and Jim begin to converse and learn more about each other Huck is constantly surprised by Jim’s knowledge; even
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is about a young boy who helps a slave escape from his master by floating down the Mississippi River on a raft. The story starts with Huck's abusive, alcoholic father, "Pap," kidnapping him from the nice widow, Mr. Watson, whom Huck was living with. Huck manages to escape and meets up with Jim, a slave of Mrs. Watson's, who ran away. As Huck and Jim float to freedom from slavery and other evils of society, they meet a variety of characters from different sides of humanity, including conmen and two families in a deadly feud. On their journey, Jim and Huck grow emotionally closer and Jim becomes somewhat of a father figure to Huck. This is beneficial to Huck because his real father is hardly
Treasure Island has a very clear call to adventure near the start of the story in which Jim Hawkins uncovers his signal to cross the threshold. During the prologue of this novel, Jim and his mother finds a new customer visiting their inn. He was a retired pirate who carried a chest with him, he knew he was near death so he gave Jim the key to it. Inside the chest, Jim found a map to a place called Treasure Island where there was supposedly hidden loot. “Mother could there be treasure here? I mean it is a map to Treasure Island” (Stevenson 42). That is when Jim decided to step out of his ordinary world and accept the call to adventure. It was a decision that took courage and bravery, two characteristics that he maintains throughout the rest of the story. This part of the novel clearly shows the call to adventure that Jim Hawkins
One of the many ways Jim Hawkins tries to find the treasure is leaving his crew members to explore the island and try to find the treasure on his own. “I was so pleased at having given the slip to Long John, that I began to enjoy myself and look around me with some interest on the strange land that I was in.” (pg 59). Leaving Long John and the rest of his crew has made his journey easier and more relaxing. “I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration.”(pg 59). When faced with danger he was going to call help for from Long John his crew but his fear of Long John and his hunger to try to find the treasure allows him to stick with his plan. “I was within an ace of calling for help. But the mere fact that ...
Stevenson, R. (2009) ‘My first Book: ‘Treasure Island’’, in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
The main character, Tom Tin, faces hardships and struggles many fourteen year olds do not have to face so early on. His father has mistakenly got himself into trouble and it is up to Tom to save his father and help make his family’s future bright again. Tom has good intentions throughout the novel, but he gets himself into trouble. He turns out to be an unlikely hero after pushing through his doubts and finally triumphing over his mistakes along his journey.
Money, money, money, and the love of money is the root of all evil. Money, has led the characters of Treasure Island to kill, lie, cheat, and put themselves in great peril to acquire it. The Squire Trelawney, the good Doctor, and Jim really have no cause to go in the search of the fortune that they did not earn or place where it rest. Wealth, whether found, earned, or inherited does not automatically speak well of the owner. The test of one’s character should be more than economical success.
Huck Finn - the central character of the novel and the son of the town drunk.
All children and teenagers will discover character traits and qualities that they want to possess from the adults they come into contact with. Jim Hawkins is no different. He uses the attributes he learns from Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey, and John Silver to help mold him into the man he is becoming. Works Cited Stevenson, Robert. A. A. Treasure Island. City: Publisher, Year of Pub.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
When thinking of books that seem to be written specifically for young boys, Treasure Island is a book that comes to many minds. Treasure Island is the epic tale of thrill seeking and adventure. Stevenson’s main character is a small boy, Jim, who gets to go away from his mother and embark on a trip across the ocean. There are sea fearing pirates, sword fight, and bloody killings. These are typically things that interest boys. Stevenson also follows the literary pattern described by Perry Nodelman in his book, The Pleasures of Children’s Literature. He describes that many novels written by men follow a pattern when it comes to the plot of their stories. “There is an unified action that rises toward a climax and then quickly comes to an end” (Nodelman 124). Treasure Island follows this pattern. The novel moves towards the climax of finding the treasure and then ends quickly without too great of detail with how the treasure money is spent or what happens in the character’s lives. In many ways, Treasure Island exemplifies the narrative patterns of a “boy book.”
Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, tells a compelling story of the mischievous and imaginative child called Tom Sawyer. The protagonist leads his friends through these creative journeys. Because of Tom’s sly personality, he ends up in trouble quite often. However, the clever young boy is able to use his charm and shrewd tricks to avoid his problems. This book displays real life struggles a boy can face during his adolescent age. The author captures the audience with a perspective on the realizations children are able to face within a community. As the story progresses, Tom grows into a mature young man while making mature choices. His childish pranks and games start to diminish throughout the book. Tom starts to learn