Dig a grave and let me sleep;
I lived happily and died without complaining.
When you lie down, you are voluntary.
Please carve this poem for me:
He lies where his heart yearns,
Like a sailor leaving his hometown,
Like a hunter coming home from the mountain.
-Stevenson
Treasure Island is Stevenson's famous work and his most popular work. This novel is full of twists and turns and imagination, which fully embodies Stevenson's romantic writing style. At first, Steven, 3 1 year-old, accompanied his stepson in watercolor painting, drew a map of the island, which caused various associations, and finally wrote a well-known adventure story. Although the plot of the novel is the product of the author's rich imagination, many places are inspired and influenced by previous British and American writers such as Defoe, washington irving, Poe and Kingsley. Treasure Desert Island is undoubtedly pure fiction, and the author does not expect to learn too much from the desperate struggle between the two groups around the treasure. The author's greatest success lies in attracting readers' attention from beginning to end through the thrilling stories with clear context and ups and downs, and making people read them in one breath.
Although the complex of the novel is purely fictional, the author arranges the time of the story in the18th century, and arranges most of the plots in the vast sea and desolate islands, giving people a feeling of being far away from this world. Stevenson once said, "Fiction should be to adults what drama is to children. His creation of Treasure Island, a seemingly illusory world, is to try to introduce readers into a fantasy world, so that people can only appreciate the environment and plot description of the novel, get rid of secular troubles by indulging in the fantasy realm, and get a temporary detached enjoyment, just like a child facing the stage. As far as plot arrangement and environmental description attract readers, Treasure Island is undoubtedly very successful, which shows Stevenson's superb artistic skills.
The novel tells the story in a child's tone, avoids any preaching, and makes readers feel cordial, natural and authentic; Although the plot clues are not complicated, the dangers in the development of the story are constantly ups and downs, which does not appear dull and does not make people feel feminine and mysterious; The works are also interspersed with humorous and lyrical elements, which adds a lot of color to the works; The whole work is compact, lively and natural, and fascinating to read. Although Stevenson deliberately avoids the didactic color in the novel and keeps a detached attitude, since he describes a group of people of all kinds and their life-and-death struggle, it is inevitable to reveal his attitude and tendency in his works. Through the description of these characters, the author praises people's good quality and humanitarian spirit.
In Treasure Island, the most profound and meaningful thing is the story itself. The novel revolves around the struggle for a batch of treasures. First, the desperate struggle between two gangs, and then the special struggle between pirates and gentlemen. But in the final analysis, this treasure does not belong to either of them. It was accumulated by the long-term imprisonment of the old pirate Frind, and his accumulation process was a process of constant cruelty. In the process of fighting for these treasures, many people died on a desert island. It is these treasures that arouse the pirates' great greed, making them fearless, killing people without blinking an eye and doing evil. Getting rich has become a desire to return to children's prestige. Even when they are exhausted by fever, when they hear that the treasure is in front of them, they are all angry and their steps are getting lighter and lighter; But once disappointed, they were so angry that they drew their swords and prepared to fight. There is such a description in the novel: the pirate leader who buried the treasure at the beginning killed six accomplices with him in order to keep it secret; Later, the treasure hunter found a skeleton, and the arm of the skeleton pointed in the direction where the treasure was buried. As a signpost, this skeleton reveals the evils brought by greed, desire and money worship, which has thought-provoking implications.
Although Stevenson wrote many poems and essays in his life, he was mainly regarded as a novelist. From Treasure Island and other works, we can see that Stevenson did not choose the realistic creation method insisted and developed by Dickens, Thackeray and other writers, but inherited Scott's style, turning his attention to historical themes and suspicious scenery and describing various adventures. His novels inherit Scott's tradition in basic style, which is lively, energetic and enthusiastic. Meanwhile, he developed and formed his own style. Stevenson believes that the function of art is not only to describe and imitate life truthfully, but also to help people avoid vulgar and superficial daily life and make people get rich spiritual nutrition in literary imagination.
He said: "The real life that a person agrees to live with this goal lies entirely in the field of fantasy. However, he did not completely indulge in romantic and magical fantasies. Some of his excellent works still reflect the sharp social contradictions at that time, especially the positive, optimistic and enterprising spirit, which brought beneficial help and pleasant enjoyment to readers.