Robert Louis Stevenson is the author of Treasure Island, The Black Arrow, Kidnapped, A Child’s Garden of Verses, the deliciously creepy The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde based on a real person, and much more. You can learn more about him here.
Pirate in disguise
In Treasure Island, young Jim Hawkins is warned to be on the lookout for and avoid “the seafaring man with one leg.” Yet when he meets a sailor with one leg named Long John Silver, Hawkins is not troubled. Why?
First, he’s had a letter from his friend the squire claiming that Long John Silver is a war veteran who lost his leg “in his country’s service.” Next, when he meets Silver for himself, Silver seems “clean and pleasant-tempered.” Here is the paragraph where Jim Hawkins meets the truly nasty Long John Silver who, at the moment, doesn’t seem so nasty:
As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, and at a glance I was sure he must be Long John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham—plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling as he moved about among the tables, with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder for the more favoured of his guests.
You can tell by the words “wonderful,” “like a bird,” “intelligent and smiling,” “cheerful,” and “merry,” that Jim Hawkins likes Long John Silver as soon as he sees him, even though he’s been warned to stay away from a one-legged man.
Stevenson describes the pirate in a positive light to get Jim to feel comfortable around him. If Jim had seen what Long John really was like, he never would have let Long John get on the ship.
Now it’s your turn: In the example paragraph, Jim describes how Long John looks and what he does. Write to show Long John for what he really is—a greedy, manipulative, murderous pirate.
Describe the pirate. How will he look now? What will he be doing? How will he move? What will he say? Let his looks, actions, and words show him for the true pirate he is.
Extra fun: Go to this video on YouTube to hear professional actor Ben Crystal give the “To be or not to be” speech from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ben speaks in Original Pronunciation, the accent most believed to be how Shakespeare and the actors of the time would have sounded. Many people say this accent makes them think of pirates. Do you agree?
