Class 12 Section II English Lesson 4

Summary

The story begins with two men, Evans and Hooker, “stranded British wastrels,” heading in a canoe towards a coral island after paddling all night from the mainland. Hooker studies a map they stole from a Chinese man, Chang-hi, whom they murdered. Chang-hi had discovered treasure left by a shipwrecked galleon and marked its location on the map. Part of the map has little dashes pointing in all directions, which puzzles Evans and Hooker.

They identify the spot on the island, strike into the forest, and find a pile of stones marking the treasure. Nearby lies the dead body of a Chinaman who had been digging for the gold. Evans begins to pick up the gold ingots but feels a thorn prick. They drag as much gold as possible to the canoe, but both men begin to suffer from the poison. Hooker realizes the dashes on the map indicate the thorns protecting the treasure. The story ends with both men dying beside the “still quivering” body of their companion.

Understanding the text

a. Describe the expository scene of the story.

Ans 👉 The story opens with Evans and Hooker in a canoe approaching the island under the hot noon sun. The island has a thick green forest, sloppy hills, and a small river flowing to the sea, setting a vivid scene for the treasure hunt.

b. What does the map look like and how did Evans and Hooker interpret it?

Ans 👉 The map looks like very old rough map. By much folding it was creased, unclear and worn to the pitch of separation. Evan interprets twisting lines in the map as the river and the star as the place whereas Hooker interprets the dotted line and straight line and the way to the lagoon in the map.

c. How did Evans and Hooker know about the treasure?

Ans 👉 They knew about the treasure by overhearing the Chinese man Chang-hi’s conversation and from the map he had created.

d. Describe Evans’s dream.

Ans 👉 During their journey, Evan began to doze and saw a dream. Evan had a dream about the treasure and Chang-hi. In the dream, they were in the forest and saw a little fire where three Chinese men sat around it and talked in quiet voices in English. Evans went closer and he knew that Chang-hi took the gold from a h4ish galleon after shipwrecked and hide it carefully on the island. He worked alone and it was his secret, but now he wanted help to get the gold back. There was a battle and Chang-hi was brutally killed by them. He thought that someone was calling him, so he suddenly woke up.

e. What do the two treasure hunters see when they walk towards the island?

Ans 👉 The two treasure hunters saw three palm trees, thick bushes and dim white flowers at the mouth of the stream when they walk towards the island. They also saw the dead body of Chinese man named Chang-hi which makes both of them surprised.

f. In what condition did the treasure hunters find the dead man?

Ans 👉 The dead man had a puffed and purple neck, swollen hands, and ankles, lying in a clear space among the trees.

g. How did the treasure hunters try to carry gold ingots to the canoe?

Ans 👉 They used Evans’s coat, holding each end of the collar to carry as many gold ingots as possible back to the canoe.

h. How were Evans and Hooker poisoned?

Ans 👉 Both were pricked by slender, two-inch-long poisonous thorns hidden with the treasure, which caused them to collapse and suffer severely.

Reference to the Context

a. How do you know the story is set on a tropical island?

Ans 👉 The story “The Treasures in the Forest” has been set on a tropical island. It begins with two men, Evans and Hooker, heading in a canoe towards a coral island in the heat of the sun. It’s atmosphere, naturally variable ecosystems, thicker and green forest, freshwater lakes and streams, salt marshes and mudflats (wetland), mangrove and coastal forests, fringing and offshore coral reefs, and deep sea represents that the story is set on a tropical island.

b. Why do you think Evans and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island?

Ans 👉 I think Evan and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island because of their greed for wealth. They took it as a challenge and the risks as rewards. They were also attracted by the fact that it was the treasure left behind by a shipwrecked h4ish galleon which may cost millions of dollars. So they became crazy about the treasure and took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island.

c. Do you think the narrator of the story is racist? If yes, what made him feel superior to other races?

Ans 👉Yes, I find some sort of racist feelings in the narrator of the story when he presents Evan and Hooker as superior to that of the Chinese man in the story. In fact, a racist is a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards people based on their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. In the story, we find the Chinese man was brutally killed by Evans and Hooker. When Hooker said to Evans, “Have you lost your wit?”, it also reflects dominating nature of Hooker over Ivan. Thus, many instances in the story state that the narrator of the story looks like a racist.

d. What do you think is the moral of the story?

Ans 👉 The moral of the story is that peoples can do anything for money. They can take any kind of risks for it. As in the story Evan and Hooker killed a Chinese man brutally to get their way to treasure buried in the desert, people can even take lives of other. It’s greed that is the disordered desire for more than is decent, not for the greater good but one’s own selfish interest, and at the detriment of others and society at large. Greed can be for anything but is most commonly for money or treasures and power which is much more. At the end of the story, Evan and Hooker both were poisoned. This shows that greediness leads to the destruction. So we should not run behind the money and treasure, rather than focus on our dreams and be happy with the things as much as we have.

Reference beyond the text

a. Interpret the story as a mystery story.

Ans 👉 The story “The Treasures in the Forest” is full of mystery. The story has fine descriptions of its mysterious setting and characters. It has a fine plot with various twists in characters’ situations.It’s hard for a reader to predict what is going to happen next. The story is about two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker who seek to find the hidden treasures in the forest left behind by a shipwrecked h4ish galleon. Some mysterious events are : Hooker murder Chang-hi, a Chinese man to steal the treasure map. Chang-hi grins at them when he gets murdered. They travel by canoe sailing towards the coral island. However, neither of them understands the intention behind it. The fearful surroundings of the forest and the final painful death of the characters create a kind of suspense among the readers. The poisonous thorns appear out to be the main cause of the death of the characters. All these things prove this story as a mystery story.

b. Treasure hunting is a favorable subject of children’s stories. Remember a treasure hunting story you read in your childhood and compare and contrast it with ‘The Treasures in the Forest.’

Ans 👉 I have read a treasure hunting story named “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson.Both “The Treasures in the Forest” and “Treasure Island” are almost similar.In the story, treasure hunts began when Stevenson sketched an imaginary island complete with swamps, graves, and an X to mark the spot where the “Bulk of Treasure” was buried. From his sketch, Stevenson conceived the tale of young Jim Hawkins, who finds the map in a dead man’s chest and takes up the role of cabin boy in a search for pirate gold. At the end of the story, a significant part of the treasure is left on the island, and the way is left open for a number of sequels, though none by Stevenson himself. Treasure Island is packed with vivid characters, but it’s Long John Silver who steals the show as a murderous mutineer who nevertheless spares Jim’s life. In a metafictional companion piece, The Persons of the Tale, Stevenson has Silver and his arch-enemy Captain Smollett step out of the story between chapters to smoke a pipe and discuss the intentions of the Author, of whom Silver says: “I’m his favourite chara’ter … he likes doing me.”