The Treasure in the Forest

Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. Describe the expository scene of the story.
Ans: From the expository scene of the story, we see the two characters, Evans and Hooker, in the canoe approaching the land, deeper green forest with a little river flowing to the sea and sloppy hills.

b. What does the map look like and how do Evan and Hooker interpret it?
Ans: The map looks like a rough and due to the much folding, it was creases and worn to the pitch of separation. According to the Evan, the curved and twisting line means river and the star means the place. And according to the Hooker, the straight and dotted line is the path to the logon.

c. How did Evan and Hooker know about the treasure?
Ans: The Chinese men were talking about the treasure, which was buried and protected by Chang-hi in  a secret-place, in an English accent in front of a roaring fire with the map. Evan and Hooker moved closer to them to them and heard the plan of the treasure.

d. Describe Evan’s dream.
Ans: While Evan daydreamed on his boat, he saw a strange dream. He got the vision of himself and Hooker when they were searching something in the forest. While searching something, they saw a little fire where three Chinese men sitting around it and talking quietly about the treasure in the English accent. They both move closer to them. They got some ideas related to Spanish treasure through Chinese men. Chang-hi work alone and it was his secret, but now he wanted to help to get the gold back, there was a battle and Chang-hi was killed by them.

e. What do the two treasure hunters see when they walk towards the island?
Ans: The two treasure hunters see thick bushes and  big white flowers which they haven’t seen before when they walk towards the island.

f. In what condition did the treasure hunters find the dead man?
Ans: The treasure hunters found the dead man lying in a clear space among the trees with a puffed and purple neck and swollen ankles and hands.

g. How did the treasure hunters try to carry gold ingots to the canoe?
Ans: The treasure hunters tried to carry gold ingots to the canoe by pulling the coat which was heavy due to the heavy gold bars. Both of them pulled the coat out of the hole helping each other. They decided to take all the gold to home. But after some time, Evan stopped due to the pain in his arms and necks and rested. They get brutally hurt while carrying the gold ingots to the canoe.

h. How were Evan and Hooker poisoned?
Ans: The treasure was protected with poisonous thorns by Chang-hi as indicated in the map with –. While carrying the gold ingots to canoe, Evan’s arms and neck started pain and it falls to the ground. While carrying the ingots again, he feels the thorn prick and gets poisoned. Again, Hooker’s thumb was pierced by a thin thorn, and they both got poisoned.

Reference to the Context

a. How do you know the story is set on a tropical island?
Ans: The story is set on a tropical island because the tropical islands have a unique vegetation and ecosystem including tropical rain forests, lakes and streams, mudflats, coral reefs and many more. A tropical forest has a dense shrubs and white blooms which also shown in the story as the two hunters saw while walking through the forest. As the tropical forest has the hot climate so the hunters felt tired and thirsty due to their whole night voyage and excessive heat in the island’d area. All these features reveals that the story is set on a tropical island.

b. Why do you think Evan and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure in a desert island?
Ans: I think Evan and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure in a desert island due to their poor family  background as mentioned in the story. They wanted to be wealthy easily and fast. Their economic condition is not good. They were seeking the chance to become rich and have prosperous life. Due to the greed of the gold ingots, they killed the Chinese to take the map of the treasure. Due to the financial crisis, they took such a risk.

c. Do you think the narrator of the story is racist? If yes, what made him feel superior to other races?
Ans: Yes, I think the narrator of the story is racist. Here, Evan and Hooker are shown as the superior and Chinese men are shown as inferior. Chinese men are shown as the dominating character of the Two English men, Evan and Hunter. The Chinese man was brutally killed by the Evan and Hunter in search of treasure. When Hooker said to Evan that he had lost his wit, it shows the dominating nature of Hooker towards Evan. This shows the narrator of the story is racist.

d. What do you think is the moral of the story?
Ans: I think the moral of the story is the more we become greedy, the more we become selfish and be in trouble. Like in this story, Evan and Hooker became greedy by listening about the treasure by Chinese men. They thought to snatch the map of the treasure from them and brutally kill the Chinese men. So, from the story we learnt the greedy makes the person becomes selfish. So, we should avoid the greed otherwise it will end up very bad. Greed can be for anything but it is commonly for the money and power which is more dangerous and can be harmed. So, we shouldn’t be greedy for money and power. We should be happy for what we have. Greed many lead to the death as we see from the story.

Reference beyond the text

a. Interpret the story as a mystery story.
Ans: H.G. Wells’ story ‘The Treasure in the forest’ is the mystery story where two English men, Evan and Hunter and the three Chinese men are shown.

While travelling through the forest, Evan and Hooker heard about the treasures told by the three Chinese men. Chang Hi is the also among them. After some time, Hooker brutally killed the Chang Hi for map. Chang Hi was smiling while they were killing him. They don’t think about that and search the destination in the map. They were following the map and going towards the destination. After reaching the destination, they saw a corpse of the Chinese man rather than the treasure. Now at that time, they knew that why Chang Hi was smiling.

b. Treasure hunting is a favourable subject of children’s story. Remember a treasure hunting story you read in your childhood and compare and contrast it with ‘The Treasure in the Forest.’ 
Ans: There are many treasure hunting story which I had heard in early childhood. Among them, the following is one of them.

In the story, the old man who was a farmer as the profession and run his livelihood through his farms. He has also have 5 sons who loved to enjoy the life and don’t want to help their father.

Due to the old age, his father became sick. As he knew that his death is coming soon due to his health problems, he called all his sons and told them that he had buried and hide a lot of money and gold in farm but he had forgotten. After telling about the information, they left the room and plan to take the gold.

After some days, their father died. After the funeral work of their father, they dug the whole farm/land but found nothing. After that they knew that there is nothing and his father planned to grow the crops in the farm instead of his father. So, they followed their father and grew crops. After some months / years, they get the good results. Due to their hardworks, they succeed and get the good results.

The moral of the story is “Always work hard to get success in life.”