Published by: Prastu Regmi
Published date: 10 Sep 2024
The story begins with two men, Evans and Hooker, "stranded British wastrels" paddling in a canoe towards a coral island in the heat of the noon sun after paddling all night from the mainland. Hooker is studying a map, which the narrator says they stole from a Chinese guy named Chang-hi, who they murdered during the crime. Chang-hi had stumbled upon the riches left there by a shipwrecked ship and chose to rebury it at a site on his chart. Evans and Hooker are puzzled by one aspect of the map: it is covered in small dashes pointing in every direction.
Evans and Hooker find the location marked on the map and, after beaching their canoe, venture into the interior of the island, through the forest. They immediately uncover the distinguishing mound of stones, as shown on the map, but alongside it is the purple and swollen body of a Chinaman who had been seeking the treasure, as evidenced by some half-exposed golden bars of gold in the pit he had been excavating. The men believe the Chinaman was one of Chang-hi's accomplices who decided to try to take the treasure for himself.
Evans begins to pick up the gold ingots to return them to the canoe when he feels a thorn prick. The two men load as much gold as they can inside Evans' jacket and set sail, but after roughly a hundred yards, Evans' arms ache, he sweats, and he convulses. Hooker, rearranging the ingots on the jacket after Evans' collapse, feels a thorn prick and finally gets the meaning of the small dashes on the map; Chang-hi had protected his treasure with thorns "similar to those the Dyaks poison and use in their blowing tubes".
The narrative finishes with Hooker dying next to his companion's "still quivering" body.
1. How do you know the story is set on a tropical island?
ans: Tropical islands are known for their uniquely diverse ecosystems, which include tropical rainforests, open woodlands and grass savannahs, freshwater lakes and streams, salt marshes and mudflats (wetlands), mangrove and coastal forests, sefis, fringing and offshore coral reefs, and deep sea.
The story begins with a canoe approaching land and then moves on to the setting of the bay, the white surf of the reef, the litter river, running to the sea, the virgin forest, the sloppy slope, and so on. The atmosphere, ecosystems, denser and greener forest, freshwater stream coastal forest, palm trees, prickly shrubs, seagrass, and depth sea all indicate that the novel is placed on a tropical island.
2. Do you think the narrator of the story is racist? If yes, what made him feel superior to other races?
ans: Yes, I detect racial attitudes in the narrator of the story when he presents. Evan and Hooker are shown as superior to the Chinese man in the story. In truth, a racist is someone biased or hostile toward others because they belong to a specific racial or ethnic group, usually one that is a minority or marginalized. According to the tale, Evans and Hooker mercilessly killed the Chinese man. When Hooker asked Evans, "Have you lost your wit?" It also reflects Hooker's dominant character over Ivan. As a result, numerous times throughout the story, the narrator appears to be racist.
3. What do you think is the moral of the story?
ans: The story concludes that people would do everything to make money. They are willing to take any danger for it. People can even take the lives of others, as seen in the anecdote in which Evan and Hooker violently murdered a Chinese man to gain access to gold hidden in the desert. Greed is the disordered desire for more than is reasonable, not for the greater good, but for one's selfish gain, at the expense of others and society as a whole. Greed can be motivated by a variety of factors, the most popular of which are money, treasures, and power. After the story, Evan and Hooker were both poisoned. This demonstrates that greed leads to devastation. So instead of chasing money and riches, we should focus on our ambitions and be content with what we have.