The Theme in Treasure Island

At first, it was kind of difficult for me to find the theme for the book Treasure Island. When I got further into the story it slowly became easier for me to realize what I thought the author was trying to portray. Originally what I thought when I knew I was going to read the book is that it’s just going to be about pirates looking for treasure. To me I thought there was more to the story than that. Yes, it is about this crew of pirates that go out to sea to find this mysterious island that supposedly holds treasure. But, throughout the book there are allies that are made and people also go against each other. They only come to find the treasure at the very end of the story so that’s not the only thing that the book focuses on.

The main character is Jim Hawkins and he basically got along with everybody on the ship. But, there was one specific night that actually made the whole book come together and made everything happen. He decided to go to the barrel to get an apple. Then there were people coming around and he decided to hide in the barrel and that led to him eavesdropping on conversations that he wasn’t meant to hear. It turns out one of the men named Long John Silver was planning a plot against some of the other shipmates including Jim. John was going to kill people on the ship! That was surprising news to some but then not to others because when Jim went to tell the people that were on his side what he heard, they knew that that man was suspicious from the very beginning.

So knowing that information, the people that were with Jim were trying to plan out what they were going to do put plans never really worked in this story. Chaos, of course, broke loose and both sides were scattered around the island. I thought this showed that some people are two-faced. Long John Silver acted like everybody was his friend and nothing was wrong. But, that sounded much different when Jim was in that barrel hearing his conversation. This type of thing happens throughout the story but there are a lot of plot twists. It turns out later on in the book Jim finds a stranger on the island that did not come from their ship. His name was Ben Gunn and even though he wasn’t in most of the book, he is a crucial character for the outcome at the conclusion. Unfortunately, he has been stranded on this island for quite a while. But, that soon changes when the book comes to a close.

Even though in the beginning of their voyage John was acting two-faced, that sort of changes when Jim Hawkins bumps into him and his crew on the island. He didn’t seem as naïve has he was before but Jim still got held captive. What I thought was surprising is that he didn’t kill Jim even though he was planning on it in the beginning. That showed that his character changed slightly.

Throughout this book I kept thinking about the theme and what specifically the author was trying to portray. I finally came to the conclusion that I thought the author was trying to say something along the lines of, “be careful of who you trust”. Because that’s all I thought was happening throughout the book. Lots of allies, changing sides, and two-faced people. John changed sides and decided to take go along with Jim and his crew.

Ben Gunn at first didn’t seem like a character that had a big impact on the story until I got to when they almost found the treasure. I say almost because they found the spot where the treasure WAS. It turns out that Ben Gunn already found the treasure and when he did, he took it to his cave on the island. If he wasn’t a part of the story it would have been much easier for them to find the treasure and that’s why he made a big impact on the book.

Even though the author portrayed being careful of who you trust Long John Silver (I thought) changed throughout the book. Instead of being a bloodthirsty pirate (from the beginning), he later became less naïve and switched sides to go with Jim Hawkins. I thought this showed that some people can change but only if they themselves want to. Jim couldn’t change John. No other character could have changed John because you can’t change other people. They can only change themselves. That goes for our lives as well. People will only change if THEY make it appoint to change.