Treasure Island — Study Guide for “The Fall of a Chieftain”

Big ideas and how they connect to the novel’s themes

• Greed and its costs
  • The empty pit and later sight of the real hoard underline how the hunt for gold drives violence and betrayal. The chapter totals the blood price of Flint’s treasure, echoing the novel’s warning that avarice destroys.
• Leadership, power, and the fragility of command
  • Silver’s authority collapses in a heartbeat when the pit is empty; Merry tries to seize control but is cut down. The “chieftain” falls because pirate power rests on fear, luck, and loot, not loyalty.
• Loyalty, betrayal, and self-preservation
  • Jim sees Silver’s rapid shifts; Livesey protects his own and will not spare Silver out of sentiment. Allegiances in the book are fluid and transactional, testing Jim’s judgment.
• Strategy, deception, and superstition
  • Livesey and Ben Gunn outwit the mutineers—moving the treasure, handing over a useless map, and exploiting pirate superstition. The chapter champions cunning over brute force, a throughline of the novel.
• Justice and moral accountability
  • Trelawney’s “mill-stones” speech hangs guilt on Silver; Livesey admits he’d have let Silver die. The book consistently weighs characters by actions and consequences rather than words.
• Courage and endurance (of many kinds)
  • Silver’s physical grit on a crutch, the ambush by the loyal crew, and Jim’s steady nerve show different forms of bravery that recur throughout the adventure.
• Appearance vs. reality; maps and false leads
  • The chart misleads; the pit is a ruse; the true treasure is elsewhere. The novel repeatedly unsettles the idea that a map guarantees certainty.
• Coming-of-age and hard truths
  • Jim’s disillusionment with Silver’s double-dealing and the sober tally of death nudge him toward adult moral complexity—a key arc of the book.
• Community and belonging
  • The warm, communal meal in the cave contrasts with pirate fracture; Silver sits in the shadows at the edge of acceptance, capturing his liminal place in the group.

Vocabulary

Quotes to look for

• “Jim, take that, and stand by for trouble.” — Silver arms Jim; signals shifting alliances and imminent conflict.
• “So you’ve changed sides again.” — Jim’s frustration captures Silver’s opportunism.
• “Two guineas! … That’s your seven hundred thousand pounds, is it?” — Merry’s fury at the empty pit shows greed turning to mutiny.
• “Dig away, boys … you’ll find some pig-nuts and I shouldn’t wonder.” — Silver’s cool mockery in the face of danger.
• “crack! crack! crack!—three musket-shots flashed out of the thicket.” — The ambush that breaks the mutineers’ charge.
• “George, I reckon I settled you.” — Silver’s ruthless, personal kill underscores his hard pragmatism.
• “Ben Gunn, the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from beginning to end.” — A twist that elevates the underestimated outcast.
• “You would have let old John be cut to bits …” “Not a thought,” replied Dr. Livesey. — Livesey’s cold justice versus mercy.
• “John Silver, you’re a prodigious villain and impostor … the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like mill-stones.” — Trelawney’s moral indictment.
• “That was Flint’s treasure … that had cost already the lives of seventeen men from the Hispaniola.” — The human cost of treasure.
• “Come back to my dooty, sir.” — Silver’s claim of loyalty—sincere or strategic?
• “You’re too much of the born favourite for me.” — Smollett’s comment on Jim’s luck versus skill.
• “the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.” — Silver’s chameleon nature in a single line.