English Book Review Treasure Island

Name: Avyinaeesh A/L Sitsabasan Class:3 Teratai Book Title: Treasure Island Author: Robert Louis Stevenson Teacher: Pn Chng

Content
1. Introduction 2. Synopsis 3. Themes 4. Characters 5. Reasons

Introduction
Treasure Island was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in the year 1883.And it has been touching lives since .Describing a tale of pirates and buried gold it was widely accepted. It was first published in 23rd May 1883. Traditionally considered a coming-ofage story, it is an adventure tale known for its atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality as seen in Long John Silver unusual for children's literature then and now. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perception of pirates is vast, including treasure maps with an "X",schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders.

Synopsis
Jim Hawkins and his mother and father run an inn called the 'Admiral Benbow.' One day an old sea dog comes in and tells Jim to warn him if a sea-faring man with one leg. Then, one day an old blind beggar comes in and gives the sea dog the 'black spot.' Soon Jim finds himself fatherless and running for his life from the beggar's gang who are destroying the inn. Before he left, Jim had taken the dead sea dog's chest containing money and a treasure map. Along with some friends and a crew of sea men Jim sets out for Treasure Island. Once on the island things start to happen-the finding of a wild man, a rebellion, missing treasure, and a few evil plots. "An old sailor, calling himself the captain but really called Billy Bones, comes to lodge at the Admiral Benbow Inn on the English coast during the mid-1700s, paying the innkeeper's son, Jim Hawkins, a few pennies to keep a lookout for seafaring men. One of these shows up, frightening Billy into a stroke, and Billy tells Jim that his former shipmates covet the contents of his sea chest. After a visit from another man, Billy has another stroke and dies Jim and his mother who had just suffered the lost of their husband and father unlock the sea chest, finding some money, a journal, and a map. The local physician, Dr. Livesey, deduces that the map is of an island where the pirate Flint buried a vast treasure. The district squire, Trelawney, proposes buying a ship and going after the treasure, taking Livesey as ship's doctor and Jim as cabin boy. Several weeks later, Trelawney sends for Jim and Livesey and introduces them to Long John Silver, a Bristol tavern-keeper whom he has hired as ship's cook. They also meet Captain Smollett, who tells them that he does not like the crew or the voyage, which it seems everyone in Bristol knows is a search for treasure. After taking a few precautions, however, they set sail for the distant island. During the voyage the first mate, a drunkard, disappears overboard. And just before the island is sighted, Jim overhears Silver talking with two other crewmen and realizes that he and most of the others are pirates and have planned a mutiny. Jim tells the captain, Trelawney, and Livesey, and they calculate that they will be seven to nineteen against the mutineers and must pretend not to suspect anything until the treasure is found, when they can surprise their adversaries. But after the ship is anchored, Silver and some of the others go ashore, and two men who refuse to join the mutiny are killedone with so loud a scream that everyone realizes there can be no more pretense. Jim has impulsively joined the shore party, and now in running away from them he encounters a half-crazy Englishman, Ben Gunn, who tells him he was marooned here and can help against the mutineers in return for passage home and part of the treasure. Meanwhile Smollett, Trelawney, and Livesey, along with Trelawney's three servants and one of the other hands, Abraham Gray, abandon the ship and come ashore to occupy a stockade.

The men still on the ship, led by the coxswain Israel Hands, run up the pirate flag. One of Trelawney's servants and one of the pirates are killed in the fight to reach the stockade, and the ship's gun keeps up a barrage upon them, to no effect, until dark, when Jim finds the stockade and joins them. The next morning Silver appears under a flag of truce, offering terms that Captain Smollett refuses, and revealing that another pirate has been killed in the night. At Smollett's refusal to surrender the map, Silver threatens an attack, and, within a short while, the attack on the stockade is launched. After a battle, the surviving mutineers retreat, having lost six men, but two more of the captain's group have been killed and Smollett himself is badly wounded. When Livesey leaves in search of Ben Gunn, Jim runs away without permission and finds Gunn's homemade boat. After dark, he goes out and cuts the ship adrift. The two pirates on board, Hands and O'Brien, interrupt their drunken quarrel to run on deck, but the shipwith Jim's boat in her wakeis swept out to sea on the ebb tide. Exhausted, Jim falls asleep in the boat and wakens the next morning, bobbing along on the west coast of the island, carried by a northerly current. Eventually, he encounters the ship, which seems deserted, but getting on board, he finds O'Brien dead and Hands badly wounded. He and Hands agree that they will beach the ship at an inlet on the northern coast of the island. But as the ship is finally beached, Hands attempts to kill Jim, and Jim shoots and kills him. Then, after securing the ship as well as he can, he goes back ashore and heads for the stockade. Once there, in utter darkness, he enters the blockhouseto be greeted by Silver and the remaining five mutineers, who have somehow taken over the stockade in his absence. Silver and the others argue about whether to kill Jim, and Silver talks them down. He tells Jim that, when everyone found the ship was gone, the captain's party agreed to a treaty whereby they gave up the stockade and the map. In the morning Dr. Livesey arrives to treat the wounded and sick pirates, and tells Silver to look out for trouble when they find the site of the treasure. After he leaves, Silver and the others set out with the map, taking Jim along. Eventually they find the treasure cacheempty. Two of the pirates charge at Silver and Jim, but are shot down by Livesey, Gray, and Ben Gunn, from ambush. The other three run away, and Livesey explains that Gunn has long ago found the treasure and taken it to his cave. In the next few days they load the treasure onto the ship, abandon the three remaining mutineers and sail away. At their first port, where they will sign on more crew, Silver steals a bag of money and escapes. The rest sail back to Bristol and divide up the treasure. Jim says there is more left on the island, but he for one will not undertake another voyage to recover it.

Themes
1. Truthfulness and loyalty
Several of the other heroes are remarkable for standing by their word, notably Dr. Livesey who, loyal to the Hippocratic Oath, keeps his word to render assistance to the sick, even those he despises such as Billy Bones and the pirates who have captured the stockade.

2. Temperance versus drunkenness

A strong contrast is constantly drawn between the drunkenness of the pirates (except Silver) and the temperance of the heroes, especially Dr. Livesey. Alcohol undoes many of the villains in Treasure Island. Captain Flint dies from excessive rum drinking. Dr. Livesey warns Billy Bones against drinking further after his first stroke; Bones ignores this warning, suffers a relapse, and dies. Drunkenness leads to the fatal fight between Israel Hands and O'Brien, enabling Jim Hawkins to recapture the Hispaniola.

3. Religion versus irreligion

The conflict of piety versus irreligion is mainly developed between Jim Hawkins and Israel Hands on the Hispaniola. Hands is feigning mortal illness, and Jim says that he should pray like a Christian man if he is nearing death. When Hands asks him why, Jim answers heatedly, "For God's mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why."

4. Thrift versus profligacy

The conflict of thrift versus profligacy runs through much of the book. Most of the pirates are unable to hold on to their money; Silver relates that Pew "spends twelve hundred pound in a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now and under hatches, but for two year before that, shivers my timbers! The man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the powers!"

5. Drugs and Alcohol

The word "rum" is used over 70 times in Treasure Island. The only fun thing the pirates ever do together is drink. This reliance on alcohol also proves to be their undoing. Because they are all stone drunk their first night on the island, no one notices when Ben Gunn sneaks up and kills one of them.

Characters
1. Jim Hawkins
-13 or 14 years old -Narrator of the adventure -The book is it is his feelings, perceptions, and emotional responses that the reader responds to and views the story through. - He is the typical young boy, who through no fault of his own, becomes involved in the ultimate adventure, especially for a boy of his age. -Through this process, he is transformed from someone who is merely an onlooker, to an active participant who determines his own fate by courageous, and often very risky, actions. - Although it is not due to his bravery or any special skills, it is he and not the older, more experienced men on the journey, who uncover the pirates plan for mutiny, find Ben Gunn and enlist him in their cause, and steal the Hispaniola and return it to the captain. -He thinks on his feet and by the end of the book has matured into a capable, competent boy. -Jim returns home to write the story and is haunted by Long John Silver and his parrot in his dreams long after his return from Treasure Island.

2. Mrs. Hawkins
-Jim's mother -The only female character in the book -Her character is most revealed in the actions that she takes in order to assure that she gets what is her due from Billy Boness treasure -By being able to go back and return to the inn in the face of grave danger, she sets an example that Jim follows later in the book.

3. Redruth
-The Squire's servant. -accompanies the crew on the island but is one of the first "good" men to die.

4. Billy Bones
- First pirate that Jim meets in the book -ragged, scarred, ponytail, and a cut on his check -Despite his drinking and singing a song that is clearly a pirate tune, his seeking out the Admiral Benbow inn is a sign that he does not want to be captured. -. Although Billy Bones demonstrates this dubious behavior, Jim is not afraid of him and even enjoys the excitement that the seaman brings to the otherwise isolated island. -Billy Bones personality, the kind, and gentle, parental side that is present when he aligns. the "good" men. - Although he is blustery, beneath it all he is good-hearted. Jim is genuinely sad when he passes away at the end of the first part of the book, from a stroke.

5. Dr. Livesey
-depicted as an arbitrator who is fair, intelligent, fearless, and well-organized. -shows consideration and kindness to Jim, thus, becoming one of many surrogate parental figures to Jim in the course of the novel. -also a narrator of the novel although only for a few chapters. -is descriptions further his characterizations as a scientist, who is most concerned with curing the sick repeatedly mentions the malaria present in the swamps. - Also extremely concerned with fairness to all, as his concern about the pirates that they had to leave behind demonstrates.

6. Black Dog
-companion of Billy Bones -arrival at the Admiral Benbow inn marks the beginning of violence at the inn and the notification to Bones that other pirates know of his whereabouts. -Although he and Billy Bones are friendly, their meeting ends in a fight where Billy Bones is injured.

7. Pew
-another character who arrives at the Admiral Benbow in order to try and ambush Billy Bones and find the treasure map. -described vividly, at first as a blind old man who "rat-tap-tap" with his stick but, deceptively, also an evil, mean adversary who is willing to use physically prowess in order to cower those around him. - Physically challenged but capable of extreme violence. - At the end of part I, Pew is trampled by a horse because his friends abandon him.

8. Squire Trelawney
-figure in the book who financially underwrites and initiates the treasure hunt. -makes mistakes and his hiring of Long John Silver and the mutineers tops the list of misjudgments and miscalculations which lead to the downfall of the journey. - Very nave and trusting, and, thus, is constantly being duped. His best quality is his ability to shoot straight - throughout the novel he is given the jobs that require the best shot because of his famous aim.

9. Captain Smollett
-Commander of the Hispaniola - Perceptive, smart, and scared of the dangers that lie before the journey, an attitude that proves correct. -He demands obedience

10. Long John Silver

-Long John Silver is an old sailor cook, the leader of the pirates, and one of Jim's friends. -has only one leg, and is usually accompanied by his parrot. -Throughout the novel, Long John Silver clearly possesses a dual personality -At times, Silver shows extreme kindness and a paternal liking for the young narrator. At other times, however, Silver, although deformed like Pew, shows extreme brutality and cruelness in killing other sailors. - Long John Silver is not "good" or "bad" but rather a composite of both. -Because of his openness about his greediness and mercileness, his pursuit of the gold seems more justified than the greediness and evilness of the "good" characters.

11. Israel Hands

-member of the "bad" pirates and shows a clearly evil' side, as someone who is crafty and cunning in all that he does. -His philosophy is that of "live or die," someone who kills in order to not be killed. -First person Jims kills and feels no remorse for

12. Ben Gunn

-provides comic relief in the island, a breath of fresh air in a very tense part of the book. -Member of Flint's original crew, Ben Gunn was marooned on the island for three years and forced to survive on his own. - He stumbled upon Flint's treasure and buried it, thus saving it from the pirates that try to kill Silver and Jim. -He is nice to both Jim and the rest of Jim's group, and provides the means for escape. -spends his part of the treasure in only three weeks.

Reason
The reason I chose this book is because it came highly recommended from my mother and also because the lead character in the book is about my age. I thought I could learn something from his character which I did. Now I am glad that I chose to read this book, because I learned a lot from it and I enjoyed the time I spent reading this book.