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Treasure Island
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Why does Jim, who has just told Hands to go to his prayers, end up laughing at him with a pistol in each hand and Hands's own words in his mouth?
The tension Two creeds meet on the tilting deck. Jim says you can kill the body but not the spirit and preaches like a Christian man; Hands says he never saw good come of goodness, that striking first is his fancy and dead men do not bite. Then Jim, up in the cross-trees and "as conceited as a cock upon a wall", chuckles "Dead men dont bite" back at him, and a moment later, pinned by the dirk, fires both pistols without meaning to. The chapter sets the boy's creed against the pirate's and asks which one the fight actually follows.
Watch two very different ways of seeing the world meet on the tilting deck, and notice what each man says and does.
Hands sends Jim below for wine. Jim sees through the trick and watches Hands take out a blood-stained dirk. Back on deck, they talk of death and goodness, then bring the ship into North Inlet. Hands attacks, the ship grounds, and Jim flees up the shrouds and arms both pistols. Hands hurls the dirk and pins him to the mast, both pistols go off, and Hands plunges into the water.
Start with Hands's question: does a dead man stay dead? Ask why he might ask it, and why Jim answers as he does.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the wine, the dirk, the talk of prayers, the beaching, the chase, the climb, and the dirk thrown.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes one sentence of their own that describes a playground game with words for a back and forth, then a second that admits how real the stakes felt.
Debate Did skill, instinct or luck keep Jim alive? Each side gives one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking what the talk of prayers and of striking first shows about each man before the fight.
Easier Read the wine scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 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 from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student to find one more place where Jim misjudges Hands or himself, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Hands sends Jim below for wine, and Jim answers, “Will you have white or red?” Why does Jim play along?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to see what Jim has worked out, and why he hides it.
Jim sees Hands wants him off the deck and uses the errand to spy on him.
He wanted me to leave the deck
popped my head out of the fore companion
Jim thinks Hands is too stupid to notice, and is proud to beat him at his own game.
with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily conceal my suspicions to the end
I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where my advantage lay
A strong answer Jim sees that Hands's hesitation is put on, since his eyes wander and he smiles guiltily. By answering cheerfully, Jim keeps Hands believing he has fooled him, and the trick lets him watch the deck from the forecastle. A strong answer can also notice Jim’s confidence, which he calls his advantage, and ask whether it is well founded.
2. Hands asks if a dead man stays dead, and Jim answers, “You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit.” Why might Hands ask, and why does Jim answer so?Character
What it asks It asks why a man with a hidden dirk asks about death, and what Jim's reply says about Jim.
Hands is uneasy about O'Brien and about what he has done, and he half-wants a reason to think it does not matter.
Theres a power of men been killed in this Hispaniola
Well, thats unfortnateappears as if killing parties was a waste of time.
Hands is fishing for what Jim believes, to see how soft he is before he strikes.
Im no scholar, and youre a lad as can read and figure
Ill chance it with the sperrits, Jim.
A strong answer Hands asks, in his plain way, whether a dead man is dead for good, and Jim answers with his faith: the body can be killed but not the spirit. Hands takes it lightly and says he will chance it with the spirits. A strong answer can read the question as guilt or as probing, and should say what Jim's answer shows about how he sees the world.
3. Jim tells Hands to “go to my prayers like a Christian man,” and Hands answers, “I never seen good come o goodness yet.” Who sounds more convincing to you, and why?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to weigh two opposite views of life as they are spoken on the same deck.
Jim sounds more convincing. He speaks with heat and from what he knows has been done.
Youve broken your trust; youve lived in sin and lies and blood
I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk
Hands sounds more convincing. He speaks from thirty years at sea, and what he says fits what happens next.
For thirty years, he said, Ive sailed the seas and seen good and bad
Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men dont bite
A strong answer Jim speaks from faith and from what he knows, and with some heat. Hands speaks from thirty years at sea, and the way he puts it, “dead men dont bite,” is a rule he then acts on with the dirk. A strong answer picks one and says why, and can ask which of the two the fight on the deck seems to follow.
4. Jim drops the tiller and leaps sideways, and later scrambles up the mizzen shrouds. Was it skill, instinct, or luck that kept him alive?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to sort what Jim plans from what simply happens to him.
Skill and quickness: he moves at once each time and uses the deck well.
I had been saved by being prompt
Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled up hand over hand
Luck: the tiller, the grounding and the body all fall his way, and his first pistol fails.
I think this saved my life, for it struck Hands across the chest and stopped him
The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash nor sound
A strong answer Jim moves quickly every time: he leaps sideways, dodges around the mast and then runs up the shrouds before the dirk can reach him. But the tiller that strikes Hands, the ship that grounds and throws Hands into the dead body, and the wet priming are not things he chose. A strong answer weighs both and says which it thinks kept him alive.
5. Jim says he was “as conceited as a cock upon a wall” when the dirk comes. Why might the author have Jim tell us that about himself?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the author gains from letting Jim laugh at his own pride just before it is punished.
It warns the reader that Jim was careless, and it makes the blow land harder.
in my new-found security, I laughed aloud
I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a cock upon a wall
It makes Jim honest and likeable, because he owns his mistake when he could have hidden it.
I cursed myself for my neglect.
I scarce can say it was by my own volition
A strong answer Just before the dirk flies, Jim is laughing and drinking in Hands's words, and he tells us himself that he was as conceited as a cock upon a wall. That sets Jim's pride right beside Hands's trick, so the fall comes fast. A strong answer also notes that Jim is telling this against himself, and says what that does to the way we see him.
1. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how Jim learns that Hands means to hurt him.
What it asks It asks the student to follow Jim from suspicion to proof, using what he sees.
Hands's manner gives him away before anything is seen.
His eyes never met mine; they kept wandering to and fro
so that a child could have told that he was bent on some deception
Jim sees Hands get the dirk, and that proves it.
picked, out of a coil of rope, a long knife, or rather a short dirk
hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket
A strong answer Hands's eyes wander and he smiles in a guilty way, so Jim is suspicious. Then Jim watches him crawl across the deck, pick a blood-stained dirk from a coil of rope and hide it in his jacket. A strong answer uses one of each, and notes that the second is what Jim needs to be sure.
2. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why Jim thinks Hands will not attack him until the ship is beached.
What it asks It asks the student to follow Jim's reasoning about what Hands needs from him.
Jim believes they both want the ship safely stranded.
We both desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a sheltered place
until that was done I considered that my life would certainly be spared
Jim is guessing, and the chapter shows how wrong a guess can be.
What he would do afterwards
was, of course, more than I could say
A strong answer Jim reasons that they both want the ship stranded in a sheltered place, and until that is done he thinks his life will be spared. He also admits he cannot say what Hands will do afterwards. A strong answer uses both and notes that the plan depends on Hands thinking the same way.
3. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how Jim keeps himself alive on the deck after the ship grounds.
What it asks It asks the student to gather what Jim does after the ship tips, and what each action gives him.
He gets away from Hands by climbing to a place the wounded man cannot easily reach.
I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled up hand over hand, and did not draw a breath till I was seated on the cross-trees
It cost him no end of time and groans to haul his wounded leg behind him
He uses the time to get his pistols working.
I lost no time in changing the priming of my pistol
I proceeded to draw the load of the other and recharge it afresh from the beginning
A strong answer Jim runs up the mizzen shrouds to the cross-trees, away from the dirk. Hands follows slowly because of his leg, which gives Jim time to reprime one pistol and recharge the other. A strong answer uses one of the escape and one of the preparation.