In the day 71 post, I shared Norman Friedman’s process for determining the form of the plot of a story. These plots describe the shape and content of inner conflict the protagonist must confront in order to solve the external problem raised by the story’s inciting incident.
In this post, I’ll share my analysis for Treasure Island, which builds on the protagonist work in posts from days 66, 68, 69, and 70.
1. Who is the protagonist?
Jim Hawkins. He is the obvious choice, but we should always test our assumptions.
Jim undergoes the most change from beginning to end. He is the character who ultimately responds to the inciting incident in the story’s climax, which leads to resolution of the primary narrative question. When the old captain, Billy Bones, comes to the Admiral Benbow Inn and disrupts life for the regulars, Jim becomes intrigued and craves adventure but fails to see the real risk of danger. The first scene also introduces us to the seafaring man with one leg, who isn’t named and doesn’t yet appear in the flesh but haunts Jim’s dreams. The narrative question is not whether Jim will survive his encounter with Long John Silver. We know he does because Jim is the narrator of this account. Our primary question is how he survives an encounter with a pirate so dangerous that Bones is afraid of him. The opening scene offers two possibilities: Jim can follow the example of Bones or Livesey. Jim survives by his own initiative and honor (with some help from his friends), resolving the narrative question.
2. What is the state of Jim’s fortune, character, and thought at the beginning of the story and at the end?
Fortune: With the inciting incident, Jim’s fortune is low. Although Bones is a new lodger at the inn, he doesn’t pay his bills and eats and drinks a great deal. His presence raises the possibility of regular customers being scares off by his tyrannical behavior. Jim is presented sympathetically, and we hope he will end up in a better position by the end. When the story resolves, Jim’s fortunes have improved because he has a share of the treasure.
Character: Jim possess a strong will at the beginning of the story, but his motivations are concentrated in his desire to pursue adventure untempered by moral considerations. His narrow goal-focused frame (through which he determines the relevance of what he sees) causes him not to raise the alarm about the seafaring man with one leg when he first learns of the threat. At the end of the story, Jim has altered his goals significantly and wants no part of any quest to return to the island and retrieve what remains of treasure.
Thought: In the beginning of the story, Jim is naive because he lacks experience. He has led a relatively sheltered life away from danger and cannot make the connection between the stories of violent men and the threat drawing near when Bones comes to stay at the inn. This inexperience causes Jim not to alert Livesey and Trelawney about the possibility that the ship’s cook may be the dangerous pirate he was warned about. Jim is taken in because Silver is a “clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.” Jim’s model of the world did not include violent people acting congenially. By the end, Jim has gained experience dealing with a master shapeshifter, enough to keep himself alive. He even learns from Silver, though he will apply those skills only when necessary. We accept that Jim is not sophisticated enough to understand fully what’s going on in the beginning.
3. What is the primary change Jim undergoes?
While Jim experiences changes in fortune (gains treasure) and thought (better understanding of potential risks and rewards), the central change is in his character (better goals).
His goal is the first question raised and the last one resolved. The ups and downs of Jim’s fortune test his character, providing material for growth and opportunities to express his moral choice. His fortunes don’t change him but provide the fodder, when metabolized, for a change in character.
The change in his circumstances scene to scene creates an opportunity for him to upgrade his thought/worldview because Jim adapts to his changing perceptions of the world. His adaptation at the level of thought leads him to consider the moral implications, which will change his motivations. In other words, his thought is the tool for processing his experiences, a bridge between his circumstances (fortune) and change in character through altered motivations.
The relationship between fortune and thought leads to a change in character as expressed through Jim’s goals and actions. Jim is sympathetic, but he lacks experience of the wider world, which leads to immature goals. This is corrected through a change in fortune leading to a change in thought and finally better goals informed by his morality.
4. What primary emotion is evoked in the reader?
We begin the story with a concern for Jim as a sympathetic and naive character with ill-conceived goals. We hope that he will transform his character and make better choices. These hopes are justified when, in the end, Jim’s motivations change to ensuring the survival of his friends, and we experience satisfaction that things have turned out as they should. But notice, much like Peter in The Tale of Peter Rabbit, there is a painful emotional cost that goes with the loss of innocence. For Peter, in a story for very young children, this is temporary indigestion. For Jim, he has forever lost his romantic ideas about adventure.
What plot best aligns with the story?
Friedman describes the Maturing plot (subcategory of character) this way: "a sympathetic protagonist whose goals are either mistakenly conceived or undetermined, and whose will is consequently rudderless and vacillating."
The key elements of the Maturing Plot include the following:
Opening state: Goals mistakenly conceived. Jim’s desire is for adventure without moral consideration.
Catalyst: Experiences that force moral choices. Over time, Jim must weigh his own desires against the lives of others.
Development: Must choose between selfish wants and the needs of others. Philosophically, this is a choice between Silver's path in life and Livesey's example.
Resolution: Achieves mature integration. Jim takes risks associated with adventure only when necessary and considered with moral responsibility.
The protagonist needs a force of antagonism to cause them to change. Change is painful, and people don’t tend to do it unless they must as a result of the right combination of circumstances. In a well-developed story, the antagonist conforms to their own plot to provide just the right conditions to make change in the protagonist surprising but inevitable. In the next post, I’ll show how to identify Silver’s plot based on the text, his essential characteristics, and character stack.
This post is part of a 75-day writing challenge and experiment. From September 9 through November 22, I'll be posting daily thoughts on writing, storytelling, and creativity based on recent readings or reflections. While my intention was to keep them very short—250 to 400 words—I've found that this range doesn't give me enough space to cover these topics adequately. I aim to keep them brief enough to be read quickly, but they will often be longer than 400 words.
At the end of the challenge, I will organize and revise the material with intention. For now, the object is to explore and share.