A community for discussing the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and related topics
I've just finished reading Treasure Island for the 2nd time and it's one of my most favorite, beloved and pleasurable adventure novels. I just read it and it's a bliss. It's so easy to read and at the same time it's so entertaining that there are no words for it.
The characters are awesome, but obviously the highlight of the story for me is Long John Silver.
The question that popped into my mind. Would the story be better if John would have been killed off at the end? Does a human like that deserve to continue to live and get away with it, not to mention get the reward?
Was he more good than bad?
What are your thoughts?
This is a book that most people just can't read as an adult for the first time and get the desired emotional connection to Long John Silver.
Try to see him thru a young boy's eyes - a young boy who grew up without a father, on some level both hating and desiring the father he never had.
In a harsh environment with a hard-working but never economically thriving mom.
You get attached to Billy Bones, a surrogate father figure, but he dies and warns you about a one-legged man.
You then meet the one-legged man on a journey to track down a hidden pirate treasure, become very attached to this man, the ultimate father figure, only to learn he's a murdering, thieving pirate who has definitely been using you to get to the location of his lost-ling treasure, but who also MAY have been genuinely attached to you as a son figure to his father figure.
Freud talks about the natural ambivalence that we all have toward our fathers, at a deep level - the desire for a father figure and the anger/drive to kill a father figure.
At the end of Treasure Island, we're supposed to feel as Jim feels toward John Silver - a little bit of both desire and hatred, and torn between the two.
And it's the process of being emotionally torn that helps to enable Jim to move on toward a more mature state of manhood - with his longing for and desire to kill this archetypal father figure - remaining unfulfilled on both counts.
As adults, it makes sense to read Treasure Island and just see John Silver as a piece of shit human being who doesn't deserve to live.
But he represents so much more than that to Jim, and to the child within us all.
Percival's first encounter with the "Dark Father" figure he sought - the Grail King, ended in disaster because he didn't ask - and didn't know - the question he needed to ask the Grail King (and also himself) to find true reconciliation with the Dark Father, and integration with the various aspects of his own unconscious. Luke's first encounter with his own Dark Father ended badly too until he found a way to make peace within himself to be able to step away from the internal and external conflicts and finally reconcile with his own unknoweable dad.
As readers, if we can get in touch with that childlike aspect of ourselves, we can find thay your question about whether John Silver deserves to live or die, is really beside the point - the question we should ask ourseves should be - how can I find reconciliation with that powerful, unknoweable, Dark Father figure that exists in my subconscious, in order to make peace within my Self? Because either way, Long John Silver still sails off into the sunset to live another day as a murdering theiving man, pirate, and archetype.
in other words, how can Long John Silver help me grow into a more mature, balanced person, to live a life that I feel good about, while not forgetting the lessons I have learned from my encounter with him.
Sharing this thought-provoking post by u/kinkbrit. My own two cents:
Does a human like that deserve to continue to live and get away with it, not to mention get the reward? I think not, but life can be unjust like that and perhaps this ending is meant to reflect that. It's interesting that there used to be strict rule for movies (Hays Code) stipulating that a killer must be punished at the end. So many classic works (such as Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca) needed revised movie endings to conform to the standards. Books never had this rule, of course, so we are allowed to consider unfair scenarios like Long John Silver getting away!
As an aside, last year I re-read Treasure Island after many years, and to be honest I didn't find it as easy of a read as I expected because of all the ship / sailing jargon. I actually thought Kidnapped was the easier, more enjoyable read!