Summary, Analysis, Settings, Themes, and Character Analysis of The Treasure in the Forest || Grade 12
About the Author
He was an English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian, well known for science fiction novels.
It is supposed that Wells used the concept of an atomic weapon in his 1914 book The World Set Free, which actually became true in the Second World War.
He published his first fiction, The Time Machine, in 1895, which was immensely popular, which established him as a science fiction writer.
His science fiction novels include The Wonderful Visit (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and others.
Background of the story
"The Treasure in the Forest" is a fictional story taken from the collection The Country of Blind and other Short Stories.
It is a story that represents the ominous adventure genre of fiction in which two men search for Spanish treasure, deceiving three Chinamen with the temptation of greed and crime.
It shows how power and greed corrupt human beings.
Characters
Evans: He is an Englishman who is overwhelmed with greed and crime. He, along with his friend, Hooker, moves to find the treasure in an unprovisioned canoe. They have stolen the map from three Chinese men after killing their leader Chang-hi.
Hooker: He is another Englishman, a friend of Evans. He seems a bit more humane than Evans as he tries to bury the corpse of the Chinaman beside the treasure. However, he shares the same heinous crime with Evans and its outcome.
Chang-hi: He is one of the three Chinese men who are on the way to haunt the treasure hidden in the forest. He has the map to reach the treasure which Evans and Hooker snatch from him.
Setting
The primary setting of this story is a place in an island's forest with a heap of stones near a clump of palm trees with treasure buried beneath. It is that place where the opening of the sea and the stream strike together. Most of the actions occur in and around this island, where a Spanish shipwreck occurred almost two hundred years ago.
A forest where Evans and Hookers overhear Chinamen and murder them to rob the map of the treasure.
Style/Point of View
Third-person limited narrator: A method of storytelling in which the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, while other characters are presented only externally.
Plot
Two friends, Evans and Hookers, reached the seashore in a small boat/canoe following a map. They were in search of the treasure that was hidden in the forest a distance away from this bay. There were big mountains far beyond the forest, which stood like frozen waves in cloudlike texture. They were paddling the boat turn by turn, and they had finally reached the land travelling a long way in the sea. Evan had been rowing the boat, whereas Hooker was checking the map and also the ground to find the way. Hooker asked Evan to look at the map, which was in a rough piece of paper and was creased. Suddenly they discovered a lagoon, a gap or stretched opening of saltwater in the shore. They went into the lagoon in search of fresh drinking water.
They had been in this expedition without the provision of food or water and even without a proper plan. The lagoon was connected to a creek. They moved the creek inwards; however, it was not the actual way to reach the treasure. They started observing the map in which there was a straight dotted line that represented the river from the reef to a clump of palm trees. There was a star near the palm trees, which meant the place where the treasure was hidden. Down the stars, there had been little dashes that Evans and Hooker could not understand. They even did not understand the writing as it was written in the Chinese language. That map actually belonged to a Chinese man which they had stolen from. Hooker passed the map to Evan and started paddling.
They started moving towards the creek to find freshwater to drink. Evans began to doze and started dreaming. In the dream, three Chinamen were sitting by a fire under the moon. They were speaking in simple and broken English as they had been from different provinces of China. Evans and Hooker had been trying to overhear their talk in hiding. From Chinamen's conversation, they knew that they were talking about a two-hundred-year-old treasure that belonged to some Spanish people travelling from the Philippines to their homeland. Their ship was wrecked near an island, and the crew took shelter there. However, most crew members died because of an illness, and the remaining buried the treasure on the same island.
One of the three Chinamen- Chang-hi had been searching the treasure for a while, and he had discovered it only a year ago, which he had buried in another safe place in the forest a distance away from the shore. Evan and Hooker were listening to their conversation secretly, and after this revelation, they attacked the Chinamen and murdered them to take the map. While dying, Chang-hi was laughing widely at them. In the dream, Evan saw heaps of gold and Chang-hi stopping him from getting there. He had held Chang-hi by his hair strand to kill him, and he was struggling to survive. He grew bigger and bigger like a devil. The gold also turned into a fire and a vast devil, just like Chang-hi. That devil began to feed Evans coals and his mouth burnt because of it. Suddenly, Evan woke up because of the call from Hooker.
It was merely a dream; however, the incidents in the dream had actually taken place in reality. Evans and Hooker had snatched the map from Chang-hi after murdering him. Evan woke up from the dream, and they reached the mouth of the lagoon where a small river was connected. A little way up, Hooker took some water to drink, but it still was salty. A little further, he tried again, and this time the water was fine. They drank sufficient water there and returned to the sea. After paddling for a while in the seashore, they reached the opening of the reef and the bushes in a straight line. It was the way to the treasure. They moved through masses of tall grasses, big leaves, and young trees; the blaze of sunlight was replaced by cool shadow. Finally, they reached the place where the river cut the opening.
They were searching a heap of stones which was a sign for the treasure. They went down the stream, and Evans saw the dead body of Chang-hi. They got too surprised to see his dead body, which was swollen and purple. Hooker was too scared, and he wanted to bury the body, but Evans stopped him saying it was not their responsibility. He also claimed that the body was not of Chang-hi but other Chinaman as all of them looked the same. Beside the body, there was a freshly dug hole with gold nuggets. They had not brought even a bag or any sack to carry the treasure. Evans took his jacket off and started filling it with the nuggets. While doing so, two little thorns pricked in his hands. In the beginning, Evans just took it as usual thorns, but later, he felt his arms aching. Gradually, he collapsed at the foot of a tree.
He even experienced horrible spasmodic twitching, some sudden and violent jerks. He told Hooker to handle the ingots, and while doing so, Hooker too was punctured by the thorn. He, too, started having similar symptoms like of Evans. Finally, they understood they were poisoned from the thorns. They also understood the reason behind Chang-hi's grin while dying and the meaning of dashes down the star on the map. However, it was late for them to survive.
From this story, we learn that (Themes):
The temptation for power and wealth corrupts human beings. It invites the tragic end in one's life.
There will never be positive outcomes of wrongdoings.
A good plan and proper preparation are required for an expedition/ hunting for treasure.
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