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Treasure Island
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Why does Jim, telling the story afterwards, call his escape a folly and wrong, even though he still believes the errand was worth doing and says it helped save everyone?
The tension Two men leave the stockade this afternoon. The doctor walks out after consultation, with the chart in his pocket, and Gray thinks him mad. Jim slips out with biscuit in his pockets and no leave asked, driven by disgust at the blood and envy of the cool woods. He judges himself both ways in one breath: the plan "was not a bad one in itself", but taking French leave was "so bad a way of doing it as made the thing itself wrong". The chapter sets a good errand against a bad way of going, and asks how a reader should weigh them.
Watch two men leave the block house in one afternoon, and notice how each goes and what each has to go on.
After the attack, the wounded are cared for, Hunter dies in the night, and the captain is badly hurt but will recover. The doctor walks off into the woods with the chart, and Gray thinks him mad. Jim, stifled and disgusted, packs biscuit and pistols and slips out. He finds Ben Gunn's coracle at the white rock, sees the ship from the spit, and, as night falls, decides to cut it adrift. The chapter ends as he sets the coracle on the water.
Start with Gray's question, “is Dr. Livesey mad?” Ask why Jim answers so differently.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the wounded, the doctor's walk, Jim's packing, the spit, the white rock, the coracle, and the launch.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes a short sentence judging a plan, then a longer one naming where they would go and what they would do there.
Debate Is cutting the ship adrift a clever use of what Jim saw, or a risk too far? Each side gives one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking what we learn from Jim speaking of his younger self with a mix of pride and blame.
Easier Read Jim's leaving aloud together and talk through discussion questions 2 and 3 only.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student to find one more place where Jim speaks about his younger self, and to say what it adds to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Gray asks, “Is Dr. Livesey mad?” Jim answers, “Why no.” Why do the two of them read the doctor's walk so differently?Character
What it asks It asks why two men watching one thing reach opposite judgments, and what each has to go on.
Gray judges by what he sees: a man crossing the palisade alone, into woods full of enemies.
crossed the palisade on the north side and set off briskly through the trees
Gray took his pipe out of his mouth and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunder-struck he was at this occurrence.
Jim judges by what he knows of the doctor and of Ben Gunn, and so he gives him a reason.
Hes about the last of this crew for that, I take it.
the doctor has his idea; and if I am right, hes going now to see Ben Gunn
A strong answer Gray sees a man walk out alone into the trees with a musket and a chart in his pocket, and it looks like madness. Jim has met Ben Gunn and thinks the doctor has an idea, so the same walk looks like a plan. A strong answer says that each man is sensible with what he has, and that Jim’s guess is only a guess at this point in the chapter.
2. Jim says he took “a disgust of the place that was almost as strong as fear.” What is he trying to get away from?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to sort out what is pushing Jim to go: the heat, the dead and wounded, or the sight of the doctor going free.
He is trying to escape the blood and the dead, which he is forced to look at and wash away.
so much blood about me and so many poor dead bodies lying all around
All the time I was washing out the block house
He is trying to escape being shut in, and the doctor's walk makes him want out.
What I began to do was to envy the doctor walking in the cool shadow of the woods
I sat grilling, with my clothes stuck to the hot resin
A strong answer Jim is surrounded by blood and dead men, and he is washing the block house and the dinner things, so disgust is easy to understand. But the envy begins only when he pictures the doctor in the cool shadow of the woods with the birds about him. A strong answer keeps both feelings in view, and says which seems to push harder.
3. Before he goes, Jim fills his coat pockets with biscuit and takes a brace of pistols. What does his packing tell us about him?Character
What it asks It asks what a boy's careful preparations show about how he sees what he is about to do.
He is sensible and prepared, thinking of what could go wrong.
These biscuits, should anything befall me, would keep me, at least, from starving till far on in the next day.
I felt myself well supplied with arms.
He is a boy playing at adventure, who packs but does not ask anyone's leave.
no one then observing me, I took the first step towards my escapade
I was determined to do it with all the precautions in my power
A strong answer Jim thinks ahead: biscuits so he will not starve if something happens, pistols, a powder-horn and bullets. He is also careful that no one sees him. A strong answer can read the packing as sense, or as a boy’s idea of how an adventurer prepares, and should say what it would have added if Jim had asked someone.
4. Jim sees the pirates' watchmen left “unprovided with a boat” and decides to cut the ship adrift. Is that a clever use of what he saw, or a risk too far?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a boy's plan, made up on the spot, against what he knows and what he assumes.
Clever. He has seen how the ship is guarded and thinks the risk is small.
now that I had seen how they left their watchmen unprovided with a boat, I thought it might be done with little risk
It was a night out of ten thousand for my purpose.
Too far. He rests it on a guess about the pirates, and he is carried away by the idea.
I had quite made up my mind that the mutineers, after their repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts than to up anchor and away to sea
I had taken another notion and become so obstinately fond of it
A strong answer Jim has seen the watchmen left without a boat, and the night is dark, so the plan has a reason behind it. But he has also made up his mind about what the mutineers want, and he says he grew “so obstinately fond” of his notion that he would have done it against the captain himself. A strong answer weighs the sight against the stubbornness and says where it comes down.
5. Before Jim launches the coracle, the author gives us the thundering surf, the thick fog and “absolute blackness.” What does that do to the mood of the scene?Author's choice
What it asks It asks the student to hear what the setting adds before anything happens, and to ask why the author piles it up.
It builds dread. Jim is alone in the dark on an island whose sea is never quiet.
I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island.
absolute blackness settled down on Treasure Island
It helps Jim: the fog and dark are cover, which is why he calls it a night for his purpose.
The fog had now buried all heaven.
It was a night out of ten thousand for my purpose.
A strong answer The surf thunders, the fog buries the sky, and only two lights are left on the whole anchorage. That builds dread, because Jim is small and alone on an island where the sea is never quiet. It is also cover for what he means to do, and he calls it “a night out of ten thousand” for his purpose. A strong answer says the same darkness can frighten the reader and help the boy.
1. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what the fight has cost the garrison by the time dinner is over.
What it asks It asks the student to count what the garrison has lost, from the dead to the wounded.
It has cost them men: Hunter and the captain can no longer fight.
Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action, only three still breathed
he must not walk nor move his arm, nor so much as speak when he could help it
It has cost less than it might have, because the captain will recover and the pirates have gone.
His wounds were grievous indeed, but not dangerous.
There was no return of the mutineers
A strong answer The cost is real: Hunter never recovers and dies in the night, and the captain must not walk, move his arm, or speak when he can help it. But the captain’s wounds are not dangerous and he is sure to recover, and the pirates do not return. A strong answer weighs these and says what the garrison has left.
2. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what Jim sees from the ridge of the spit that shows him how the pirates guard their ship.
What it asks It asks the student to gather what Jim sees from the ridge and say what it tells him.
The pirates keep the ship close and watch it, with their flag flying and Silver himself beside it.
the Jolly Roger hanging from her peak
Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stern-sheets
The pirates are careless, leaving their watchmen with no boat and going below to talk.
now that I had seen how they left their watchmen unprovided with a boat
the man with the red cap and his comrade went below by the cabin companion
A strong answer Jim sees the ship clearly: the Jolly Roger at her peak, Silver in the gig alongside, and two men leaning over the stern. When the jolly-boat leaves, the man in the red cap and his comrade go below, and Jim notes they have been left unprovided with a boat. A strong answer says which details make the ship look guarded and which make it look careless.
3. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what Jim’s description of Ben Gunn’s coracle tells us about the man who made it.
What it asks It asks what a rough, home-made boat shows about its maker.
He is clever with what he has, since the boat is light and can be carried.
the great advantage of the coracle it certainly possessed, for it was exceedingly light and portable
a covering of goatskin, with the hair inside
He is a poor boat-builder, working alone with scraps.
a rude, lop-sided framework of tough wood
like the first and the worst coracle ever made by man
A strong answer Jim calls it home-made if ever anything was, rude and lop-sided, and “the first and the worst coracle ever made by man.” He also says it is exceedingly light and portable, made of goatskin. A strong answer uses one of each and says what they show: a man alone with few tools who made what he needed.