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Summary of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island:
J(caps)im Hawkins’ mother keeps the Admiral Benbow Inn somewhere on the coast in the West of England in the 18th century. An old Buccaneer takes up his quarters at the Inn; he has in his chest information in the shape of a manuscript map as to the whereabouts of Captain Flint’s treasures of which his former confederates are determined to obtain possession. A body of them, led by the sinister blind pirate, Pew, arrived at the Inn but Jim outwits them, secures the map, and delivers it to Square Trelawney. The Squire and his friend, Dr. Livesey, set for the Treasure Island in the Hispaniola, taking Jim along with them. Some of the crew are Squire’s faithful dependants while the majority are old buccaneers recruited by Long John Silver. Their secret design to seize the ship and kill the Squire is discovered by Jim Hawkins. And after a series of exciting adventures and gunfights, the purpose of the adventure is thwarted. But the Squire, with the help of the marooned pirate, Ben Gunn, secures the treasure.
3.2 Themes
Some of the themes of the novel are explained below.
3.2.1 Life as Adventure
The novel portrays humans or the individual as an adventurous animal. The voyage and the treasure hunt expose the nature of life. The ship’s officer, Squire Trelawney, presents a letter to Dr. David Livesey. The desire to go on a voyage rules their hearts than the intention to amass wealth: “… having the treasures is the glory of the sea that is drawing me. So, now Dr. Livesey, come quickly. Do not waste a moment” (p. 23).
3.2.2 Greed
The novelist depicts the horrible activities of pirates in England through the centuries. Thus, our English novelist revisits this societal menace, with the intention to correct it. The voyagers had not arrived on the Island when greed and selfishness split them into camps. From the days of John Flint, man’s greed had hunted the treasure, and this reveals the age-long human greed to amassing wealth. For instance, immediately the Hispaniola left the anchor, the Pirates nursed secret plan to seize the ship and kill the Squire so as to gain possession of the treasure. The greed that ruled the treasure hunt led to the death of most of the pirates, while some marooned on the Treasure Island.
3.2.3 Nemesis (Retribution)
The natural law of retributive justice played itself out in the novel. John Flint lost the map of the treasure to Billy Bone who also lost it to Black Dog when other pirates led by Pew invaded Benbow Inn so that they could seize the sea chest in which Billy kept the stolen map of the Treasure Island. He was left unconscious but died afterwards. Jim Hawkins secures the map of the Treasure Island from Billy’s sea chest and gave it to Squire Trelawney who invited Dr. Livesey. Even when a voyage was planned, Jim overheard the plans of the pirates on board to eliminate other men. Ironically, almost all the pirates died, some marooned, and less than ten out of the twenty-six men survived the voyage. Thus, the pirates became the victims of their own design.
3.2.4 Mockery of English Patriotism.
The Hispaniola had the flag of England fully hoisted on its mast. This was the crew’s way to indicate their patriotism to England. That the pirates had the English flag flown on their ship indicates how the English paid lip service to patriotism in an era dominated by murderers and greedy pirates in England.
3.3 Style
Our assessment of the novelist’s style in Treasure Island is given below.
3.3.1 Language
The novelist narrates the story from the point of view of a child’s innocence, using the naive but the encyclopedic voice of Tim in simple and focused narrative style. Specificity of detail is lavished on the activities of the pirates through the telling ability of Jim. He assumes the century’s representative quality, with a combination of the seriousness of the event, hidden in humor. The child-like perspective employed by the narrator makes the novel assessable, brings the reader closer to its detailed events. The child narrative perspective changed only when David Livesey took over the narration towards the end of the novel.
3.3.2 Symbolism
The novelist uses symbolism, especially in character naming through the use of figures of speech like onomatopoeia and allusion. Hidden metaphors depict the types of characters. For instance, “John Flint,” “Black Dog,” “Billy Bones,” Benjamin Gunn (Ben Gunn), George Merry, Long John Silver. In the writer’s character naming, he chooses a part of a character’s name from the Bible and picks the others from nature. For instance, John Flint; John is picked from the Holy Bible; dog, barks, and bites, and bone denote a very hard object; Gunnkills and Merry are taken from the word, ‘merrying,’ a sign of being unserious. Many of such names created by the genius of the novelist quickly give away the nature of the characters and the class of the society they belong.
3.3.1 Narrative Technique
The novelist employs the first-person narrative technique, although Dr. Livessey came in briefly as a second narrator. The brief absence of Jim created suspense. The first-person narrative is restrictive but the eye of God narrator sees into the world of all characters and the events. He is involved in the story as he narrates the account of events with precision.
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