Treasure Island

Treasure Island

Book Summary

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island narrates a story about a young boy named Jim ho has been assigned the task of watching over the Admiral Benbow inn. He performs that role with the help of his mother (Louis 1). The two also look at Jim’s father, who is seriously sick and requires medical attention almost all the time. The inn receives a new guest named Bill. The guest changes the conditions at the inn by making threats of violence and creating terror with his raunchy sea songs. Billy identifies as “the captain.” When he arrives at the inn, Bill pays Jim several pennies to keep checking if any “seafaring men” (Louis) will come in the direction of the inn. The seamen have harmful intentions against Bill. He tries various approaches to ensure they do not find him. Paying Jim is one way of minimizing the chances of being found.

The rivalry between Bill and the men is based on Jim’s sea chest, which is significantly attractive. A former mate visits Billy in his room. It appears that Billy did not want anyone to visit him at the inn for fear of attack for reasons which he understands better. He is shocked by the visit and develops a stroke (Louis 5). Later, Bill reveals to Jim that he has a treasure map. Within the same period, Jim’s father, who had been sick for a significantly long time, dies. Later, another pirate visits Billy. He becomes even more fearful about the possible events that may happen shortly. Billy suffers a fatal stroke as a result. He dies shortly after. The event happens just a short period before pirates attack the inn in a bid to find Bill.

Jim and his mother also leave the inn just before the pirates arrive. The two left the inn with several coins ad a pouch that Bill had come with. Later, Jim opens the bag and finds a treasure map (Louis 7). He shows the map to Dr. Livesey, who was had been providing care to Jim’s father and Bill before the two died. They get the assistance of Trelawney, the district squire, who provides a ship for the mission to discover the hidden treasure (Louis 7). They employ Silver as the cook. Jim follows them as a ship-boy. Livesey’s role is to offer medical care to the members when the need arises.

At some point in the sea, Jim falls asleep and awakes to find some bad news. He learns that some members of the crew, led by Silver, wanted to take over the plan and selfishly control all the team activities. The members of the team succeed in arriving at the target island. The mutineers find out that some members are unwilling to join the mutiny (Louis 23). The mutineers kill two of them, a factor that makes Jim look for escape routes from the scene in a bid to save his life. He ends up in a jungle within the same Island. While at the jungle, Jim meets with Ben Gunn, a man that had been abandoned there for a significantly long time. Later, the team finds a huge wooden box on the Island. It appears to have been used as a fort before. Dr. Livesey’s group and the mutineers meet at the wooden box (Louis 39). The two parties fight each other, an event that leads to the death of several mutineers. Later, Dr. Livesey goes to the jingle in a bid to find Ben Gunn with the intention of creating ways to rescue him. Later, Jim arrives at the wooden box and finds out that Dr. Livesey has already given up the map to the mutineers. However, the Doctor’s team did so because they had already taken up the treasure. The mutineers follow the map but do not get what they went for (Louis 49). They get so angry and plan to attack the Doctor’s team. Before they do, the original squad arrives and shoots the mutineers down.

At last, Silver is expected to be subjected to legal action in which he will be hanged for leading the mutineers. That factor keeps ringing in Jim’s mind. He learns that sometimes one can ruin their life in a bid to get valuable resources.

Important Details

One can see several essential factors in the story. One of the most significant is moral ambiguity. Some members of the team find themselves in situations where they can hardly differentiate right from wrong (Santoso 5). Some members also portray both negative and positive attributes. For example, Silver appears to be kind and affectionate to some people but significantly violent to others. Personal experience is an essential lesson that one can learn in the story. At first, Jim is portrayed as a person whose primary role in life was looking after an inn. The environment at that place did not give him the chance to learn various valuable life lessons. However, when he participates in the mission to discover the treasure, he learns many valuable lessons about the world (Santoso 9). One of the most important lessons is that greed can ruin one’s life. He appears to have lost interest in pursuing treasures any other time in his life, having seen the adverse events associated with the same.

One can also see that the bid to get a role model in life can be significantly tricky for various reasons. Jim has lost his father, who had been his role model since birth. He appears to look for a father figure from the people that surround him (Santoso 9). The event in which he shares the secret about the treasure with the Doctor shows that he feels inadequate to handle some things alone. The fact that he did not plan to pursue the wealth with his mother shows that he trusts people who have similar attributes with his late father. However, the Doctor and the Squire seem not to have inspired him enough because they led him into an activity that was unfavorable for a young person like him (Santoso 15). He could not make Silver his role model because the man is so selfish and can do anything for personal gains.

Personal Opinions

In my opinion, the quest for adventure is also one of the significant factors that determine the direction of the story. At first, Jim lives a significantly quiet life in the inn. Such a kind of life is not appropriate for most youths who are always interested to know something new outside their environments. That appears to be one of the significant factors that encouraged Jim to join the team that went to discover the treasure. However, he finds that searching for knowledge about the world is associated with many adverse events. He feels that his original quiet life is more appropriate. In conclusion, an adventurous lifestyle is necessary but not the best way to live.