Student Question

What quote demonstrates Jim Hawkins's maturity and bravery in Treasure Island?

Quick answer:

Jim Hawkins displays considerable bravery and maturity throughout the story, but one particularly notable example comes in Chapter 12. The good ship Hispaniola is about to reach the fabled treasure island. Though it's been a safe and surprisingly uneventful journey, there's mutiny in the air. Jim has overheard Long John Silver's dastardly plot and tells Dr. Livesey about it at the first opportunity. There's nothing for it; the good men aboard ship have to be prepared to fight Silver and his men in the event of what seems like an inevitable mutiny. Unfortunately, they're heavily outnumbered; only six men and a boy—that would be Jim—stand in the way of Silver's scurvy band of cutthroats.

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Jim Hawkins displays considerable bravery and maturity throughout the story, but one particularly notable example comes in Chapter 12. The good ship Hispaniola is about to reach the fabled treasure island. Though it's been a safe and surprisingly uneventful journey, there's mutiny in the air. Jim has overheard Long John Silver's dastardly plot and tells Dr. Livesey about it at the first opportunity. There's nothing for it; the good men aboard ship have to be prepared to fight Silver and his men in the event of what seems like an inevitable mutiny. Unfortunately, they're heavily outnumbered; only six men and a boy—that would be Jim—stand in the way of Silver's scurvy band of cutthroats.

Although Jim's only a boy, Squire Trelawney clearly sees something in him, some real courage and maturity, which makes him a reliable partner in the fight ahead:

“Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you,” added the squire.
I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether helpless; and yet, by an odd train of circumstances, it was indeed through me that safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we could rely; and out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on our side were six to their nineteen.

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