HOMEWORK FOR SHELFARI ACADEMY SECOND ASSIGNMENT

For my autopsy, I chose Long John Silver, the main antagonist in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island."

Silver is a colorful man of mystery. When we first encounter him, he is a kindly, personable sea cook, a helping hand in selecting a crew for the Hispaniola (which we later learn is a ploy to get his mutineers on board) and the owner of a prosperous inn. From the fact he is missing a leg and still remains friendly and active, we can presume that he has an adventurous, unbreakable spirit and a strong will. It doesn't take long, however, for his bloodthirsty, murderous side to surface. Jim Hawkins witnesses him brutally murder a man named Tom, and Silver has no qualms about initiating an attack on the "good" company--during which several men are killed. It is evident that he cares for no human life but his own, and will not hesitate to sacrifice those around him to his cause. An interesting fact to note is that, after all is said and done and the mutiny is put down, Silver morphs back into the man we saw at the beginning of the book; Jim says he is "the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out."

Silver is not a conflicted character. Throughout the novel, he is on a single-minded mission: acquire the treasure. He lets no one and nothing stand in his way and, as aforementioned, even resorts to murder. He does take a liking to Jim Hawkins, and tries to protect the boy from harm when he is captured by the buccaneers; however, I have no doubt that Silver would not hesitate to kill Jim if the price was right.

Silver has many varied relationships throughout the book, but the most notable one, by far, is his friendship with Jim Hawkins. In the beginning, the pair is as thick as thieves; Silver lets Jim work with him in the galley, tells him tales of the sea, and pays him compliments. Jim, in return, is devoted and loyal to the minute he discovers plans of the mutiny. After that, their relationship is strained, with Jim regarding the pirate with a mixture of pity and revulsion, and Silver by turns being sympathetic to the boy and regarding him as a nuisance. As for the other characters, the "good" company (Smollet, Livesay, Trelawny, and the like) sees him unanimously as a scoundrel after the mutiny and is split in opinion before it; the "bad" company (the pirates) respects and fears him at first, but grows restless when the treasure is found to be more trouble than it is worth. The reader finds him/herself inexplicably rooting for Silver to live, despite all his wrongdoing. This is part of the spell Robert Louis Stevenson has woven: his villain is a selfish liar and murderer, but also charming and likable. We, like Jim Hawkins, adore him before the mutiny and mix pity and revulsion afterward, and ultimately celebrate when he is spared the hangman's noose.