LITERARY CRITICISM

March Buana

F21113042

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS

Rudyard Kipling

A. SUMMARY

Captain Courageous is a story of an adventure of a rich, spoiled fifteen years old

boy, Harvey Cheyne who fell off from the ship and rescued by the colorful men of
Massachusetts fishing ship named, We’re here. His life changed forever when he decided
to stay with the fishermen.

Harvey is a son of Harvey Cheyne, Sr., a very rich businessman in New York,
who spends most of his time only for working and do not really care with his family.
Mrs. Cheyne has struggles to raise Harvey alone. She has given up on disciplining her
spoiled son and planning to take him to boarding school. Before that, the family is
travelling to Europe with a luxury ship. Everything’s going smoothly until Harvey feels
so seasick and he does not realize that a huge wave washes him over and makes him fall
to the ocean. Luckily he is picked up by a portuguese fishermen who takes him to a
fishing ship named, We’re here. The owner and the captain of the boat is Disko Troop.

At first, Harvey can not accept the reality, he keeps asking the crew to send him back to
New York. He says that his father can pay him over ten times than they could afford. But
Disko Troop, the wise captain takes a firm stand with Harvey. He wants him to work just
as hard as the other men, and says that he will pay him ten dollars per month. He warns
 Harvey that in the dangerous water, laziness can not be tolerated, so they have to work
together and take care for each other.

As a result, Harvey begins to change in to responsible and humble man. He learns

about hardwork, integrity and friendship. He grows under the discipline and care of his
new family. He learns everything about fishing, such as how to tie the ropes, to stack the
dory boats, and also how to catch fish. Most of all, he learns that life is not that easy and
he feels thankful because he has such good friends around him to teach him about life.

In the end, Harvey takes the best experience in his life. When he finally reunites
again with his family, he is no longer a spoiled boy and everything has changed. At the
conclusion, Harvey and his best friend Dan move to California and both of them promise
to have business on aboard modern ships and they live happily ever after.

B. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Captains Courageous is a novel by Rudyard Kipling, one of a great british writers.

Captains Courageous is an exciting tale of adventure on the seas. As a whole, the flow of
the story is easy to understand, since the theme is very familiar. Through vivid
description, we can meet different kind of characters whether its major or minor.

Since Rudyard Kipling is a british author, he puts british dialects and accents in
the novel. Shortly, british dialects and accents can be found in the words or sentences in
the novel. For example :

“Not legal money, an’ bad for the lungs. Toss ‘em overboard,..”
“Quit foolin’..”
“I warned ye,”

For some people, particularly those who know the british accents and
dialects, they think that the accents are the supporting items of the story. So they might
consider that reading the novel with the accents making them more understand about the
whole story and it is kind of interesting. However, there are some people who think that
the accents and the dialects that Kipling uses, are confusing because they do not really
know how to read it with accents and dialects. Consequently, they might miss some
importants part of the story that they do not really understand.

Beside of the accents and the dialects that Kipling uses, one of the thing that the
reader complains about the novel is, Kipling uses too many sailing terms, and there is no
specific information about the terms. So the readers might wondering what they are
talking about in everyday life that written in the novel.

As explained before that the readers can meet colourful cast of the characters,
there are many minor characters in the novel. Kippling gives vivid illustrations about
those minor characters. Unfortunately, in my opinion, not all characters and their stories
give such big impacts to the flow of the story. Even though, Kippling categorizes the
characters as minors but I personally think that they should give big impacts to the flow
of the story, since one of the message that Kipling wants to share is about the teamwork.
Because there are too many minor characters, the readers might confuse and forget one of
the characters.

In contrast, there is a character named Dan Troop that can be included as a major
character, since at the end of the story, Harvey (The major character) and Dan moved to
California and build a business on modern ships. However, Kipling does not give detailed
description about this character. He only appears when Harvey appears and there is no
such big impression on him, since all we know that Dan Troop is a son of Troop, the
owner of the ship, who is very kind and likes to help Harvey. I personally think that the
illustration of Dan’s character should be added more.

Apart from the characters analysis, here I find that there is one confusing thing in
the flow of the story. It is kind of confusing, when Harvey was missing and separated
from his parents, why there is no explanation about his parents condition, like what they
feel and what they do. So the readers are wondering, do they think that Harvey died? Or
do they try to find him?. Near at the ending of the story, Harvey’s parents suddenly make
appeareances and Kipling illustrates them as sad and shocked when they find that Harvey
is still alive. Some readers might have already guessed it right, but some of them might
think that it is kind of awkward that Harvey’s parents suddenly appear near at the ending,
without any information like what they do when Harvey was missing.

Above all, the themes of the story are clearly seen. Everything you go through,
grows you and teamwork makes the dream works. For those who like the adventuruous
story, this novel is recommended. Kipling has such a great skill to illustrate the epic
events in the story, so the readers feels like they are in the story too. Unlike the other
adventurous stories which mostly have difficult plot, this novel has a very simple plot,
therefore the readers will not be confused about the flow of the story.