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Treasure Island
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Why do Pew's men leave him tapping alone in the road, when he boasts that he alone dared face Bill?
The tension Pew commands the raid by sheer rage: he curses the men for delay, curses the money they find, and beats them with his stick when they want to run. They have the doubloons and hear Dirk's warning whistle; he wants the thing worth thousands, calls them dogs and fools, and claims that not one of them dared face Bill but he. When the horses come they scatter and he is left groping and calling their names. The narrator will not say whether they deserted him "in sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill words and blows". The chapter sets one blind man's fury and boasted daring against a crew's fear and grudges, and asks which of them broke the gang.
Watch how a leader who commands by rage is followed at the start of the raid and at the end.
Jim creeps back to watch from a bush as Pew and seven or eight buccaneers arrive and break into the inn. They find the money but not what Pew wants, tear the house apart and cannot find Jim or his mother. A whistle sounds twice, Pew's men quarrel with him, and horses come down the hill. The men scatter and Pew is trampled. Supervisor Dance hears Jim's story and takes him to Dr. Livesey's house.
Start with Pew's commands at the door. Ask what kind of leader shouts “In, in, in!” and curses his men for delay.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the arrival at the inn, the search, the whistle, the quarrel, the horses, Pew's death and the ride with Dance.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes one long sentence that begins with a person left behind, weighs two possible reasons for it, then uses a semicolon to show what the person does next.
Debate Take sides: did Pew lead well that night? Each side uses at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why Stevenson has Jim say “I know not” about why the men left Pew.
Easier Read Pew's speech about the thousands aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 2 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 to a critical-thinking answer, showing where the chapter leaves a cause open.
1. Pew curses his men for delay and calls them fools. Is he leading them, or only shouting at them?Character
What it asks It asks the student to tell giving orders from being followed, using what the men do after each command.
He is leading: his orders send the men into the house and up the stairs.
Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on the road with the formidable beggar.
Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft and get the chest
He is only shouting: as the raid goes on, the men hang back and answer him.
two of the fellows began to look here and there among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, and with half an eye to their own danger all the time
Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!
A strong answer At the start Pew leads: he shouts “In, in, in!” and “Four or five of them obeyed at once.” Later one man answers, “Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!” and the two who search the lumber do it “half-heartedly.” The chapter shows orders that are obeyed at first and argued with later. A strong answer says where that change begins and does not claim to know what caused it.
2. Pew cries out, “if I had eyes!” What do you hear in his voice: rage, self-pity, or something else?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to hear what is under Pew's shouting, using his own words about what he wants and what he fears to lose.
Self-pity and fear: he sees his one chance of riches slipping away.
Im to lose my chance for you!
Im to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach!
Fury and pride: he wants his men to be ashamed beside what he says he dared.
There wasnt one of you dared face Bill, and I did ita blind man!
If you had the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit you would catch them still.
A strong answer Two things run together in Pew's cry. One is fear of losing: “Im to lose my chance for you!” and he pictures himself “a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum,” when he “might be rolling in a coach.” The other is pride and scorn: he says none of them “dared face Bill” and that they lack “the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit.” A strong answer says which one the words make stronger and what Pew hopes the cry will do.
3. Pew dies under the horses' hooves, not at an enemy's hand. Why might Stevenson end him that way?Author's choice
What it asks It asks why the author ends a frightening man's story with an accident, and how that shapes what the reader feels about him.
It makes the reader pity him: he is lost, blind and calling out for the others.
tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades
you wont leave old Pew, matesnot old Pew!
It makes his end swift and plain, so the danger he brought to the inn ends without a fight.
Pew was dead, stone dead.
He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face and moved no more.
A strong answer Pew first appears as “the formidable beggar,” shouting orders, and he dies groping and calling “Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk” and “you wont leave old Pew.” Ending him under the horses, where “the rider tried to save him, but in vain,” leaves no one to blame. A reader may pity him, or may feel the road has simply closed on him. A strong answer says what the reader is left feeling and why the author may have wanted that.
4. Mr. Dance says “not that I regret it” about Pew's death, then worries how it will look. Is he honest, careful, or both?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to judge what a man says about a death he did not plan, and why he says it the way he does.
Honest: he will not pretend to be sorry, and he says plainly why he wants to report it.
not that I regret it, but hes dead, you see
Im glad I trod on Master Pews corns
Careful: he is thinking of his own position more than of the dead man.
people will make it out against an officer of his Majestys revenue, if make it out they can
A strong answer Dance is plain-spoken: he will not pretend to regret Pew and says he is glad he “trod on Master Pews corns.” He also worries that “people will make it out against an officer of his Majestys revenue,” which is about his own position. A strong answer weighs both and says which carries more weight, using only what Dance says.
5. Jim says, “This quarrel was the saving of us.” What do you think mattered most in saving them that night?Plot structure
What it asks It asks the student to weigh several things that helped Jim and his mother, and to choose which one the chapter treats as most important.
The quarrel: it was still raging when the horses came down the hill.
This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it was still raging, another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the hamletthe tramp of horses galloping.
The riders: they set out only because of news about the lugger.
Some news of the lugger in Kitts Hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance and set him forth that night in our direction, and to that circumstance my mother and I owed our preservation from death.
A strong answer Jim names two causes. The quarrel was “the saving of us” because it was still raging when “the tramp of horses” came down the hill. But he also says that his mother and he “owed our preservation from death” to the news of the lugger that set Dance out. A strong answer picks one and says what the other still did.
1. Jim says his “curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear.” Using two pieces of evidence, was it worth the risk to watch from the bush?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh what Jim learns by watching against what he risks.
It was worth it: he sees who the men are and hears what they are after.
I made out, even through the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the blind beggar.
Flints fist, I mean, he cried.
It was a real risk: the men were hunting for him and had just torn the house apart.
Scatter, lads, and find em.
Then there followed a great to-do through all our old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture thrown over, doors kicked in
A strong answer From behind the broom Jim can “command the road,” so he sees the blind beggar among the men and hears Pew ask for “Flints fist.” But the men are also hunting for “these people of the inn,” and Pew says he wishes he “had put his eyes out.” A strong answer weighs what Jim learns against what he could lose, and does not claim to know how close the men came.
2. When Dirk's whistle sounds twice, the men want to move and Pew will not. Using two pieces of evidence, who reads the night better?
What it asks It asks the student to compare two ways of reading the same danger and to say which one the rest of the chapter supports.
The men read it better: the warning was real, and help did come.
a signal to warn them of approaching danger
another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the hamletthe tramp of horses galloping
Pew reads it better: the people they want are close by.
They must be close by; they cant be far; you have your hands on it.
Finally he took the wrong turn and ran a few steps past me
A strong answer Both are partly right. The whistle is, as Jim learns, “a signal to warn them of approaching danger,” and “the tramp of horses galloping” shows the warning was true. Pew is right that the people they want are “close by”: Jim is hiding near the road, and Pew himself runs “a few steps past me.” A strong answer says which mistake costs more and does not say what the men should have done.
3. Supervisor Dance rode out on news of the lugger, yet the lugger gets away. Using two pieces of evidence, was his night a success?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh what Dance achieves against what he misses, using the end of the chapter.
A success: the danger to Jim and his mother was over and his mother soon recovered.
not a sign of them remained but Pew
she was none the worse for her terror
A failure: the lugger escapes and the inn is wrecked.
Theyve got off clean, and theres an end.
I could see at once that we were ruined
A strong answer For Jim and his mother it was a rescue: “not a sign of them remained but Pew,” and his mother “was none the worse for her terror.” For Dance the lugger “doubled the point and disappeared,” and he says, “Theyve got off clean, and theres an end.” Jim adds that he could see “we were ruined.” A strong answer says whose success the question means and weighs both sides.