Andrew Motion: Return To Treasure Island
Motion, who has written a sequel to Stevenson's classic novel, analyses the original:
At the same time, [the ending] leaves one question hanging in the air unanswered. Silver's question. Were Jim, the Captain, the doctor, the Squire and their apparently virtuous colleagues right to go after the treasure as they did? Although not murderous and slippery like their crew, were they in fact contaminated by the same greed and (as we would call it these days) materialism? The ripples of these thoughts travel a long way, and soon touch other questions about imperialism, oppression and domination. They mean that before long we are no longer looking at the silhouette of Treasure Island from the deck of the Hispaniola, but standing beside Charles Marlow in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, staring at the Congo wilderness.
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