Reading Response #2 Long John Silver and Persuasion

The main antagonist Long John Silver, is a master of manipulation, and persuasion. And even though he is crippled with only one leg, he is able to turn the tide of almost any situation in his favor. And as a result he makes it off of Treasure Island alive, despite being a mutineer.

Silver is first mentioned in a letter by John Trelawney, a man they had sent to purchase a ship for their voyage. The letter states that, “I found he was an old sailor, kept a public-house, knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore, and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again... I was monstrously touched - so would you have been - and, out of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship’s cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and he has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a recommendation, since he lost it in his country’s service, under the immortal Hawke.” (Stevenson 44-45)This gave me an early impression of what I expected Silver to be, a kindly sea cook. Shortly after Jim Hawkins meets Silver, in Silvers public house, Hawkins informs him that a pirate is staying under his roof. Silver says “Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own house drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlight!...What could I do, with this old timber I hobble on?...The score! he burt out. “Three goes o’ rum! Why shiver my timbers, if I hadn’t forgotten my score!” (Stevenson 51), “And falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks.”(Stevenson 51) This also makes Silver seem, like a man who is kind and has good intentions. But my first impressions are changed.

Jim starts to realize that Silvers has bad intentions when he discovers that Silver is leading a mutiny against the men of the Hispaniola, the ship they are taking to Treasure Island. Hawkins discovers Silver’s duplicity when Silver is overheard talking with his shipmates about the mutiny, “‘Well, I don’t say no, do I?’ growled the coxswain. ‘What I say is, when? That’s what I say.’ ‘When! By the powers!’ cried Silver. “Well now, if you want to know, I’ll tell you when. The last moment I can manage and that’s when....I’d have Cap’n Smollett navigate us half-way back again before I struck.’” but later when he talks to Hawkins again he says, “This here is a sweet spot this island...When you want to go a bit of exploring, you just ask old John, and he’ll put up a snack for you to take along.”(Stevenson 70) Jim reflects “I had by this time taken such a horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power that I could scarce conceal a shudder when he laid his hand upon my arm.” (Stevenson 70) 

Not only is Silver a master of speech, but his tone changes greatly depending on the situation. After the mutiny is repelled and Silvers crew loses, Silver comes back to the crew and simply says “Come back to my dooty sir.” (Stevenson 195) and Jim remarks that nights, “And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter-the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.” (Stevenson 196)

It shows that Silver is only in it for his own hide. Throughout the story he had started a mutiny and then promptly switched sides when it all went wrong. Finally he escapes the Hispaniola at a port in the Caribbean and is never heard of again, “He had cut through a bulkhead unobserved and removed one of the sacks of coins, worth perhaps three or four hundred guineas, to help him on his further wanderings. I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him.” (Stevenson 199-200)