When Robert Louis Stevenson first wrote his famed novel Treasure Island he did so with the claim that, ’If kids do not like this book, why they have gone rotten since my day’. It includes a host of characters, good and bad, but the one I will be focusing on in this essay will be the main antagonist, Long John Silver. He has heavily influenced the view of a classic pirate, like having a parrot on his shoulder and holding a crutch because of his missing leg. He is portrayed in many different ways, negative and positive. He is introduced as a likable and quite successful landlord, but by the end he seems to shed this mask and becomes the charismatic leader of the pirate mutiny against Captain Smollett and all his supporters. In this essay, I …show more content…
In fact, at the start of the journey, Dr. Livesey says ‘You have managed to get two honest men on board with you- that man [Captain Smollett] and Long John Silver. Even the reader can think that he is a good character until we learn of his plans of mutiny. It is also evident that he easily can get people to like him, for he sees, and talks about, the best of the people he meets. Despite the fact that Tom Morgan lacks intelligence, when other ship-mates jeer at him, Silver defends him by saying ‘he is a honest man’. He does this to other people, including Jim, and as a result, he earns their trust. Everyone in the book respected and/or was loyal to Silver at some point in the book, even though some characters(the pirates) are usually disloyal and disrespecting, and this is a definite showcase of his charisma.. As a final point, he leads the mutiny, with a band of lazy, drunk pirates, and nearly succeeds, and leading them would not have been an easy task; only someone as charismatic as him would be able to accomplish this without being