We have come to the end of Robert Louis Stevenson’s immaculate Treasure Island novel. In these final chapters, we have a great deal of battling and adventure in two parts. Let us not tarry.
Part Five: My Sea Adventure
Jim, ever resourceful, hides himself in a boat (a coracle) and leaves the Hispaniola in both fear and excitement. Jim then lands on the island and finds the stockade, previously occupied, abandoned. After, he travels to the Hispaniola and finds that unmanned as well.
As Jim observes, “Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed since the mutiny, bore the print of many feet, and an empty bottle, broken by the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers” (Stevenson).
He decides to take the boat and man the ship. However, as it turns out, Israel hands is till aboard, though badly injured. Hands cooperates with Jim to sail the ship. While the partnership lasts for a while, they eventually fall to violence. Jim kills Hands to save himself.
Jim’s pistols go off during the struggle and fall from his hands, but he notes that they “did not fall alone” as “with a choked cry, the coxswain loosed his grasp upon the shrouds and plunged head first into the water.”
Returning to the stockade, Jim finds the pirates and is lectured to by Long John in a moment of negotiation.
Part Six: Captain Silver
Things aren’t going well for the pirates here, and they begin to mutiny. Long John, meanwhile, uses Jim as a way to maintain leadership in the group against the boy’s protests. Long John is given the black spot, but his guile and charisma save his skin, and the pirates once again follow him into the jaws of privateering.
Though on a short leash, Jim is able to understand the pirates with more acumen and seeks any way to escape. Jim notices a great deal about the pirates, both their “good humour” and their treatment of him as “cast down.” Silver, on the other hand, had a “foot in either camp,” and was doing his best to avoid a mutiny against him.
While he is unable to escape straight away, he is taken with the pirates to look for the treasure using their map. Instead of finding treasure, they hear strange voices and find an empty chest. Their superstitions activated, a fierce battle ensues and the pirates are defeated.
Before you could wink, Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into the struggling Merry, and as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the last agony, “George,” said he, “I reckon I settled you.”
At the same moment, the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us, with smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees.
“Forward!” cried the doctor. “Double quick, my lads. We must head ’em off the boats.”
(Stevenson)
After the battle, the captain and his men, and Jim, return home. Long John escapes custody and disappears. Jim, meanwhile, thinks about his adventure and all that he has learned.
Analysis
In a recent post, I talked about bildungsroman and its usage in adventure stories (Stephen King’s Fairy Tale). Jim experiences this exact phenomena in that he starts the novel as a young, naive tavern worker, and becomes a trusted cabin boy, who then becomes a heroic figure of honesty, honor, and virtue. He ultimately changes over the course of the novel while those around him remain static–murderous pirates stay murderous, and valiant captains stay valiant.
However, Jim’s dynamic characterization sheds light on not just his own person, but on the rich, detailed world around him. For example, he is haunted by his adventure at the end of the book, which is decidedly different from a conventional hero who has grown from a youngling to an adult. Jim would not return to the “accursed island” if even lashed, and is plagued by the voice of Captain Flint.
Even though the world is one of violence, the setting shows that the world can be a harsh and desperate place, unfit for the naivety of youth. Therefore, through his growth as a person, Jim becomes a unique survivor, one that goes beyond simply surviving, and instead grows into a hero.
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