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Treasure Island
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Why does Captain Smollett, with everyone's life counted in seconds, spend thirty of them calling Abraham Gray to follow him?
The tension The doctor takes over the telling, and his voice is all decision: a spring of water is worth a ship, a death cry means Jim is gone and there is "no time to dilly-dally". The squire sits white as a sheet over the harm he has led them to. Yet in the middle of the hurry the captain reads faces, notes a sailor who nearly fainted at the scream, and stakes the escape on his belief that one mutineer is "a good man at bottom". Gray comes over the side bleeding from a knife. The chapter sets the cold arithmetic of survival against a judgment about one man's nature, and asks what the captain saw.
Follow the doctor's quick choices, and watch how the captain deals with the six men left aboard.
The doctor takes over the telling. While Jim is ashore, the doctor and Hunter go to the stockade, find a spring and a strong log-house, and hear a man cry out at the point of death. The doctor turns back to the ship, and he and the captain load the jolly-boat with stores and warn the six mutineers aboard. As they leave the ship, the captain calls Abraham Gray by name, and Gray comes out with a knife cut on his cheek and joins them.
Start with the doctor taking over the story. Ask what changes when a different person tells it.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the boats ashore, the stockade, the cry, the return to the ship, the loading, the warning to the six and the call to Gray.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes three sentences in the same pattern: one about what someone is, one short sentence about what must be done, and one about what they did at once.
Debate Take sides: was the doctor wise to go back for a second boat load? Each side uses at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking what a narrator who is a doctor and a soldier notices that Jim might not.
Easier Read the captain's call to Gray aloud together and talk through discussion questions 2 and 4 only.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence.
Harder Ask the student to add a third piece of evidence from the captain's own words to a critical-thinking answer.
1. The doctor takes over the telling from Jim. What does his way of telling it show us that Jim's did not?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what changes when a different person tells the story, and what we learn from a narrator who is not Jim.
A practical eye: he sizes up a place and plans like a soldier.
they might have held the place against a regiment
I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment
A voice that shows its own feeling and its limits: he does not know where Jim is.
It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed for his safety.
I know my pulse went dot and carry one.
A strong answer The doctor looks at the island like a soldier: he sees that the stockade could be held “against a regiment,” and he settles a plan “between us” with the captain. He also lets his own feeling show, “my pulse went dot and carry one,” and says plainly that Jim's safety worries him. So the chapter gives the same island through a different habit of mind. A strong answer names one thing his telling shows that Jim's did not, and quotes it.
2. At the cry of a dying man the doctor thinks “Jim Hawkins is gone” and goes straight back to the ship. Was that the right call?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to judge a quick decision made on a fear, and to weigh what the doctor gained and gave up by turning back.
Right: time was short and the ship needed what the stockade had.
There is no time to dilly-dally in our work.
we had no water
Not clearly: he acts on a guess and does not look for Jim.
Jim Hawkins is gone, was my first thought.
It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed for his safety.
A strong answer The doctor decides in a moment: the cry makes him think “Jim Hawkins is gone,” and he says a doctor has “no time to dilly-dally.” Turning back also fits what he has seen, since the ship has no water and the stockade has a spring. But his first thought is a fear, not a fact, and he does not go looking. A strong answer weighs speed against certainty, and does not say what happened to Jim, because the chapter does not.
3. The squire sits “as white as a sheet,” but on the second trip his “faintness” is gone. What do you think changed him?Character
What it asks It asks what moves a shaken man to act again, using the squire's two moments.
Having work to do: loading the boat gave him something to hold on to.
we fell to loading the boat for our very lives
all his faintness gone from him
Being counted on: the captain puts him beside himself on guard.
here are two of us with a brace of pistols each
the squire and the captain stayed on deck
A strong answer At first the squire sits “as white as a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us to.” Later he is waiting at the stern window with “all his faintness gone from him,” and he and the captain stand on deck with pistols. One reading is that work cured him: they “fell to loading the boat for our very lives.” Another is that being counted on did, since the captain says “two of us with a brace of pistols each.” The doctor does not say which, so a strong answer weighs both and says what a shaken man needs.
4. The captain tells the six that a signal means death, then calls Gray “a good man at bottom.” How would you read each speech aloud?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to hear two speeches in two voices, and to say what each voice is for.
Both are firm: the kind words still come with a watch and a deadline.
I have my watch here in my hand; I give you thirty seconds to join me in.
Im risking my life and the lives of these good gentlemen every second.
The second speech is warmer: he speaks to Gray as a man he thinks well of.
I know you are a good man at bottom, and I dare say not one of the lot of yous as bad as he makes out.
Come, my fine fellow
A strong answer To the six the captain is flat and hard: a signal of any kind and “that man's dead.” To Gray he says “a good man at bottom” and “my fine fellow,” yet he still holds his watch and gives “thirty seconds.” So both speeches may be firm, with one better dressed than the other, or the second may show real warmth. The chapter does not tell us why he chose Gray, so a strong answer says what each voice is for and stays with the words.
5. The doctor says, “Had they gone and told Silver, all might have turned out differently.” Why might he tell us that?Plot structure
What it asks It asks why a narrator points at a danger that did not happen, and what that does for the reader.
It shows how narrow their chance was: two men's choice to sit still made the plan possible.
but they had their orders, I suppose, and decided to sit quietly where they were
Had they gone and told Silver, all might have turned out differently
It shows the doctor looking back and judging his own risks, so the reader trusts his account.
That we should have risked a second boat load seems more daring than it really was.
we flattered ourselves we should be able to give a good account of a half-dozen at least
A strong answer The doctor tells us what did not happen: the two men guarding the gigs “had their orders” and “decided to sit quietly where they were,” so at that moment they did not go to Silver. Naming the other path shows how narrow their chance was. He also looks back on the second trip, saying it “seems more daring than it really was,” so the line may be part of explaining his choices. A strong answer says what the reader gets from a danger that is named and then passes, and does not guess what happens next.
1. The doctor sizes up the stockade in a few lines. Using two pieces of evidence, what does he value most about it?
What it asks It asks what a soldier looks for in a place to defend, and which of two features the doctor puts first.
Its walls and loopholes: they make it hard to attack and easy to fire from.
loopholed for musketry on either side
too strong to pull down without time and labour and too open to shelter the besiegers
The spring: the ship has no water, and this place does.
What particularly took my fancy was the spring.
we had no water
A strong answer The doctor admires two things. The walls make the place hard to take and easy to hold, with a paling “too strong to pull down without time and labour” and a log-house “loopholed for musketry on either side.” But what “particularly took my fancy was the spring,” because the ship has “no water.” A strong answer picks the one he values most, gives two pieces of evidence, and says why it might outweigh the other.
2. The doctor says he had “half a mind” to destroy the mutineers' boats but did not. Using two pieces of evidence, was he wise to hold back?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a risk the doctor chose not to take, using what he knew at the moment.
Wise: he feared Silver might be near, and that trying for too much could lose everything.
I feared that Silver and the others might be close at hand, and all might very well be lost by trying for too much.
Not wise: the men ashore had no muskets, and the watchers were already alerted.
Not one of the men ashore had a musket
one of them whipped ashore and disappeared
A strong answer Holding back was cautious: the doctor “feared that Silver and the others might be close at hand,” and says “all might very well be lost by trying for too much.” But he also knew “Not one of the men ashore had a musket,” and the watchers had already been “aroused,” so smashing the boats may have been safe and useful. The chapter does not say what would have happened. A strong answer weighs a feared danger against a real chance, with two pieces of evidence.
3. The captain says one of the six “came nigh-hand fainting” at the cry. Using two pieces of evidence, how united are the six mutineers?
What it asks It asks the student to see whether the six men act as one, and what small signs show a split.
Not united: one is shaken and new to the work, and the group backs down at the sight of a musket.
new to this work
when they saw Redruth waiting for them in the sparred gallery, they went about ship at once
United enough to move together: they talk it over and act as one.
after a little consultation one and all tumbled down the fore companion, thinking no doubt to take us on the rear
sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle
A strong answer The six act together in some ways: they sit “grumbling under a sail,” and after “a little consultation one and all tumbled down the fore companion.” But one is “new to this work” and nearly faints at the cry, and all of them retreat when they see Redruth in the gallery. The chapter shows men who move together but do not all feel the same. A strong answer gives two pieces of evidence and says how far the group holds together.