Teaching Companion · Chapter 7 · Treasure Island

This chapter's big question

What does Squire Trelawney's letter tell the reader that the squire himself does not know he is telling?

The tension The letter is all good news: a sweet schooner got for a trifle, a cook hired "out of pure pity", a crew that could fight a frigate. But the same sentences show the whole of Bristol knowing the ship sails for treasure, a stranger quietly choosing which sailors stay, and a man who cares more for glory than for the treasure he is chasing. Jim reads it and is "half beside myself with glee", despising Redruth for grumbling; then a strange boy in his mother's bar brings his first tears. The chapter sets the delight of going to sea against what that delight keeps its owners from noticing.

Today's focus

Notice how eager the squire and Jim are to sail, and what Jim sees when he stops to look at the home he is leaving.

Two core ideas

A letter tells us about its writer as well as its news: the squire's pride, his kindness and his hurry are all in his words.
Jim's delight and Jim's sadness sit in the same chapter; he sees what he is leaving only at the sight of a stranger in his mother's bar.

The shape at a glance

Jim waits at the hall while the squire fits out a ship at Bristol. A letter arrives: the Hispaniola is bought, a cook named Long John Silver has been hired, and a crew is being gathered. Jim and Redruth go home to see Jim's mother, who has a new boy helping in the bar, and then travel to Bristol, where the squire tells them they sail tomorrow.

A way in

Start with the letter. Read a few lines aloud and ask what the squire sounds like.

Lesson plan

Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the wait at the hall, the letter, Redruth's grumbling, the visit home, the night coach and the docks at Bristol.

Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences in the same pattern about something they understood only when they saw it: what they had been thinking of, and what made them notice.

Debate Take sides: was the squire right to hire the cook out of pity? Each side uses at least one quote from the chapter.

Purpose Close by asking why the chapter moves from a glad letter to a boy's first tears and back to a glad scene on the docks.

Easier Read the squire's letter 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 from the letter to a critical-thinking answer and say what it adds.

Discussion

Read the squire's letter aloud. What do you hear in his voice: pride, excitement, or something else?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to hear the squire's feelings in his own words and to name which ones come through most strongly.
One reading

Excitement: he can hardly wait for the voyage to begin.
- yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan
- Seaward ho!
Another reading

Pride: he is pleased with his ship and his crew and wants his friend to know it.
- a company of the toughest old salts imaginable
- I declare we could fight a frigate.
Listen for
- Points to particular words, not only a general feeling.
- Notices more than one feeling in the same letter.
If stuck
- How does the squire describe his health and spirits?
- What does he say about waiting for the voyage?
- What does he say his crew could do?
A strong answer Two feelings run through the letter. One is excitement: he says he will not “enjoy a moment” till he hears his men “tramping round the capstan,” and he ends with “Seaward ho!” The other is pride: he gathers “the toughest old salts imaginable” and declares, “we could fight a frigate.” He is writing to a friend, so the voice is easy and quick. A strong answer names one or two feelings and points to the words that carry them.
The squire hires the cook “out of pure pity.” Is pity a good reason to choose a crew member for a long, dangerous voyage?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a kind motive against a serious job, using only what the squire tells us.
One reading

Yes: it is a kindness to a man who served his country and has nothing to show for it.
- since he lost it in his countrys service, under the immortal Hawke
- He has no pension, Livesey.
Another reading

Not on its own: a dangerous voyage needs skilled hands, and the squire decides at once.
- I engaged him on the spot to be ships cook
- just the sort of fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance
Listen for
- Separates the squire's kind motive from the job he is filling.
- Says what the squire knew about the man before he hired him.
If stuck
- What does the squire say about the man's leg and his service?
- How quickly does he hire him?
- What does the squire say he found when he hired a cook?
A strong answer The squire gives a kind reason: the man lost a leg in his country's service, “has no pension,” and the squire was “monstrously touched.” But he engages him “on the spot,” and the job grows, for he “thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew I had discovered.” Pity may be a good reason to help a man and a thin reason by itself to hire him. The chapter gives only the squire's account, so a strong answer says what it finds convincing and what it cannot yet know.
Jim admits he led the new boy “a dogs life.” What do you think lies behind that?Character
What it asks It asks why a boy who is setting off on an adventure is unkind to the boy left in his place.
One reading

Grief with nowhere to go: he takes it out on someone who is new and cannot answer back.
- I had my first attack of tears.
- as he was new to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting him right and putting him down, and I was not slow to profit by them
Another reading

Jealousy: the stranger is taking his place beside his mother.
- this clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother
Listen for
- Uses Jim's own words about what he did and when.
- Sees a link between Jim's tears and his unkindness.
If stuck
- What does Jim say he had not thought of until he saw the boy?
- What does he do with his hundred opportunities?
- Where does the boy stand in Jim's home?
A strong answer Jim says he had thought of the adventure and “not at all of the home that I was leaving” until he saw the boy, and then he cried. Soon after, he admits, he led the boy “a dogs life.” One reading is grief with nowhere to go: the boy is new and easy to put down. Another is jealousy of the stranger who is to stay “in my place beside my mother.” A strong answer weighs both and notices that Jim admits it himself.
As Jim leaves home, one of his last thoughts is of the captain. Why might he think of him now?Inference
What it asks It asks what the dead captain still means to Jim, and what a last look back shows about how he feels about leaving.
One reading

The captain is where this voyage began, so he is on Jim's mind as the journey starts.
- I brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details of which I well remembered.
- to sea, bound for an unknown island, and to seek for buried treasures!
Another reading

The captain is part of the old inn that has been painted over, so Jim holds on to him.
- the public rooms and the sign repainted
- since he was repainted, no longer quite so dear
Listen for
- Uses Jim's exact words about the captain.
- Connects the thought to the changed inn or to the voyage ahead.
If stuck
- What has the squire done to the inn?
- How does Jim remember the captain on the beach?
- What does Jim say about the Admiral Benbow now that it is repainted?
A strong answer Jim calls the captain “a cause of so much discomfort” and says he was “gone where the wicked cease from troubling,” yet he remembers him striding along the beach with his telescope. One reading is that the voyage began with the captain's papers, so he comes to mind as it starts. Another is that the inn, “since he was repainted,” is no longer “quite so dear,” and the captain is a piece of the old place Jim is losing. A strong answer uses Jim's words and does not claim to know what he feels.
Jim says that in all his daydreams nothing was “so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.” Why might the older Jim tell us that now?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what a hint about the future does to a chapter full of hope.
One reading

It warns the reader that the glad mood of the chapter is not the whole story.
- in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures
- full of sea-dreams and the most charming anticipations of strange islands and adventures
Another reading

It sets his boyish daydreams against what really happened, so his delight looks young.
- Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with whom we fought
- sometimes full of dangerous animals that hunted us
Listen for
- Says what the reader expects after hearing the line.
- Talks about the effect on the chapter's mood, not only the words.
If stuck
- What kind of adventures did Jim imagine?
- What does he say about the real ones?
- How would the chapter feel without that line?
A strong answer Jim describes his daydreams as savages and dangerous animals, exciting but safe at his fireside, and then says “nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.” That warns us the real voyage will not be like the dream, and it makes his delight look young. The chapter does not say what the adventures will be. A strong answer says what the line does to the mood and what it leaves the reader waiting for.

Critical thinking

The squire calls Bristol's talk against Blandly “transparent calumnies.” Using two pieces of evidence, how far would you trust his defence of Blandly?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a friend's defence of a friend, using what the letter says and what it does not.
One reading

Trust it: the ship is bought and ready, and even the critics do not dispute it.
- The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea.
- None of them dare, however, to deny the merits of the ship.
Another reading

Be careful: the squire is the only voice for Blandly, and the charges are specific.
- They go the length of declaring that this honest creature would do anything for money
- that he sold it me absurdly high
Listen for
- Separates what the squire saw from what he was told.
- Notices that the squire repeats the charges in his own letter.
If stuck
- What do the Bristol men say about Blandly?
- What does the squire say in reply?
- Which of the squire's points is about the ship itself?
A strong answer The squire can vouch for the ship, which is bought and “ready for sea,” and no one denies “the merits of the ship.” On Blandly himself we have only his word against a “class of men in Bristol” who say “he sold it me absurdly high.” The chapter reports the defence and the gossip and nothing more. A strong answer weighs both and does not decide whether Blandly dealt fairly.
Redruth growls, “A pretty rum go if squire aint to talk for Dr. Livesey.” Using two pieces of evidence, is Redruth loyal, or simply used to obeying?
What it asks It asks the student to tell loyalty from habit in a man who grumbles and goes along all the same.
One reading

Loyal: he stands up for the squire against Jim.
- Well, whos a better right? growled the gamekeeper.
- A pretty rum go if squire aint to talk for Dr. Livesey, I should think.
Another reading

Used to obeying: the squire's will is law to the household, and Redruth grumbles but goes.
- the squires pleasure was like law among them all
- old Tom Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament
Listen for
- Uses what Redruth says and what he does.
- Says what his grumbling shows and does not show.
If stuck
- What does Redruth say when Jim doubts the squire?
- What would the under-gamekeepers have done in his place?
- What does Redruth do in the end?
A strong answer Redruth defends the squire's right to speak, and that reads as loyalty. But Jim says “the squires pleasure was like law among them all,” and Redruth “could do nothing but grumble and lament,” then goes anyway. Loyalty and habit can look the same from outside. A strong answer uses two pieces of evidence and says what Redruth's grumbling does and does not show.
On the Bristol quays Jim is as delighted as if he had seen “as many kings or archbishops.” Using two pieces of evidence, what delights him most?
What it asks It asks the student to tell what Jim actually sees on the quays from what he dreams while looking.
One reading

The real sea: its smells, its ships and its sailors.
- The smell of tar and salt was something new.
- I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean.
Another reading

The dream of his own voyage.
- While I was still in this delightful dream
- to sea, bound for an unknown island, and to seek for buried treasures!
Listen for
- Two different pieces of evidence, not one told twice.
- Says whether Jim is taken with what he sees or what he imagines.
If stuck
- What does Jim say he seemed never to have been near until then?
- What does he see on the ships and among the sailors?
- What does he imagine after looking at them?
A strong answer Jim is delighted by real things: “the smell of tar and salt” is new to him, and the figureheads “had all been far over the ocean.” But he is also “in this delightful dream” of a schooner, a piping boatswain and “buried treasures.” The sights feed the dream. A strong answer picks what delights him most and gives two pieces of evidence for it.