Summary of The Treasure In The Forest
The fundamental message of The Treasure in the Forest is to not take risks when we are unprepared. The two Englishmen took risks in an unfamiliar act and were killed soon. This story was about two Englishmen who heard about gold on an island and obtained a map from a Chinese.
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| The Treasure In The Forest Story by H.G. Wells Summary & Exercise |
Characters in The Story
Major Characters
Evans: a friend of Hooker who made an adventurous journey for hunting treasures
Hooker: a friend of Evans who made an adventurous journey for hunting treasures
Secondary Characters
Chang-hi: a Chinese man who had a map to locate the treasure
Chinaman: Chang-hi’s co-worker
Summary of The Treasure In The Forest
The story entitled ‘The Treasure in the Forest’ has been written by H.G. Wells. This story is somehow like a suspense story which is about the two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker, who have murdered a Chinese man to steal his map that locates a buried stash of gold ingots. Hooker studied the map, which the narrator revealed that they stole from a Chinaman, Chang-hi, whom they murdered during the theft.
Chang-hi had by chance discovered the treasure left behind by a shipwrecked Spanish galleon, and had decided to rebury it elsewhere, at a location revealed by his map. They were very tired and hungry as if they had no food to eat. They looked at the map and got puzzled by the dashes in the map.
Evans and Hooker identified the spot indicated on the map after beaching their canoe. They stroke into the interior of the island through the forest. They soon discovered the identifying pile of stones just as the map said, but alongside it laid the purple and swollen body (dead body) of a Chinaman who had evidently himself been looking for the treasure. The men assumed the Chinaman to have been one of Changhi’s associates, who had decided to try and claim the treasure for himself.
Evans and Hooker started to pick up the gold ingots to take them back to the canoe. They loaded as much of the gold as they could drag back to the canoe. They kept the gold ingots in Evans's jacket. They set off, but after about a hundred yards Evans's arms started to ache. He became pale and fainted. He fell down. Hooker started to rearrange the ingots on the jacket after Evans’s collapse. He also started to feel like a thorn prick. Hooker then realized the true meaning that Chang-hi had behind his grin. Chang-hi had covered his treasure with thorns. The story ends as Hooker lay dying alongside the body of his companion.
Analysis Of the Story
The main idea of The Treasure in the Forest is to tell us away from the risk when you are not prepared. We must prepare before going anywhere. The end of greed is destructive. We must focus and understand each thing before making any decision on it. Otherwise, its result is bad like Evans and Hooker. This story represents that greed is the big enemy of a person and also shows the weakness of money and wealth.
Short Summary
"The Treasure in the Forest" is an ominous adventure story in which two men search for Spanish treasure, letting greed get the better of their awareness. As the story moves ahead to show how power and greed corrupt human beings. The fundamental message of The Treasure in the Forest is to not take risks when we are unprepared. The two Englishmen took risks in an unfamiliar wilderness and were killed soon.
This story was about two Englishmen who heard about gold on an island and obtained a map from a Chinese. So they paddled a canoe to the island, having fallen asleep aboard the boat. They drove their boat into a lagoon and up a river in the forest, following the chart and successfully arriving at their destination. When they discovered the death of the Chinese they had spoken with, they were terrified and began to worry about their safety, but nothing occurred.
They were packing the gold when Evans received a puncture from the gold. Evans tried to forget about it, but the deadly puncture caused him to die for a short time. Evans urged the other man, Hooker, to discard the bad gold. Hooker, on the other hand, was afraid and didn't even understand what his friend told him, and Hooker accidentally touched the gold. Finally, both of the men died. This storey succeeds in depicting the dreadful scenario when they confronted the danger, and the outcome of taking the risk will draw attention to others.
Main Summary
The Treasure in the Forest is a suspense story, depicted as a third-person narrative, relating the fate of two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker who murder a Chinese man and steal his treasure map, which locates a buried stash of gold ingots (blocks of several valuable things). The story begins with two characters Evans and Hooker who were heading towards a coral island in the heat of the noon sun, after having paddled all night from the mainland through the sea in a canoe in search of Spanish treasure.
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Hooker is studying a map of the treasures, which the narrator reveals they have stolen from a Chinaman, Chang-hi, whom they murdered during the theft. Chang-hi had by chance discovered the treasure left behind by a shipwreck A Spanish galleon (ship), and had decided to rebury it elsewhere, at a location revealed by his map. They are very much tired and hungry as if they had no food to eat. They see the map and gets puzzled by the dashes shown on the map.
Evans and Hooker identify the spot indicated on the map, and after beaching their canoe they strike into the interior of the island, through the forest. As Hooker is sailing the boat, Evans falls asleep and sees a little fire with three Chinese people sitting around it in his dream. They were talking about the Spanish treasure which a Chinese man Chang-hi had got on an Island after being shipwrecked and he wanted to take those treasures away from there.
They murder Chang-hi, a Chinese man, brutally and steal the treasure map. When Chang-hi gets murdered he grins at them. They travel by canoe sailing towards the coral island. However, neither of them understands the intention behind it. They follow the map and soon discover a forest, then a pile of stones just like the map. But then they find a man's corpse full of bruises laid beside the purple and swollen body, which they assume is Chang-hi's worker who decided to take advantage by himself seeing the dug hole and some gold.
The two men load as much of the gold as they can drag back to the canoe in Evans's jacket and set off, but after about a hundred yards Evans'’s arms start to ache and eventually faints. Hooker, in rearranging the ingots on the jacket after Evans’s collapse, himself feels a thorn prick, and at last, Hooker then realizes the true meaning that Chang-hi had behind his grin. Chang-hi had covered his treasure with thorns “similar to those the Dyaks poison (native groups of Borneo-blow pipe with lethal poison at its tip) and use in their blowing tubes. The story ends as Hooker lies dying alongside the “still quivering” body of his companion.
Exercise of The Treasure In The Forest
Understanding The Text
a. Describe the expository scene of the story.
➥ The story opens with the canoe approaching the land, by two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker, a little river flowing to the sea, the thicker and deeper green forest, sloppy hill, and the sea.
b. What does the map look like and how do Evan and Hooker interpret it?
➥ The map looks like a rough map, creased and worn to the pitch of separation. Evan interprets twisting lines in the map as the river and the star as the place and Hooker interprets the dotted line and straight line and the way to the lagoon in the map.
c. How did Evan and Hooker know about the treasure?
➥ Evan and Hooker knew about the treasure by the conversation of the Chinese man and the map he has.
d. Describe Evan’s dream.
➥ Evan had a dream about the treasure and Chang-hi. In the dream, they were in the forest and saw a little fire where three Chinamen sat around it and talked in quiet voices in English. Evans went closer and he knew that Chang-hi took the gold from a Spanish galleon after shipwrecked and hid it carefully on the island. He worked alone and it was his secret, but now he wanted help to get the gold back. There was a battle and Chang-hi was brutally killed by them.
e. What do the two treasure hunters see when they walk towards the island?
➥ The two treasure hunters see three palm trees in line with a clump of bushes at the mouth of the stream when they walk towards the island.
f. In what condition did the treasure hunters find the dead man?
➥ The treasure hunters found the dead man lying in a clear space among the trees with a puffed and purple neck and swollen hands and ankles.
g. How did the treasure hunters try to carry gold ingots to the canoe?
➥ The treasure hunters tried to carry gold ingots to the canoe with the help of the Coat of which one end of the collar was caught by the hand of Hooker and the other collar by Evan.
h. How were Evan and Hooker poisoned?
➥ Evan and Hooker were poisoned as a slender (thin) thorn nearly of two inches length pricked in Hooker’s thumb and Evan rolled over him and both of them crumpled together on the ground which made them suffer a lot.
Reference to the Context
a. How do you know the story is set on a tropical island?
➥The story "The Treasures in the Forest" is set on a tropical island. It begins with two men, Evans and Hooker. They sailed their canoe towards a coral island in the heat of the noon sun, after canoeing all night from the mainland. In the story we find the description of the forest. The place has naturally variable ecosystems, tropical rainforests, open woodlands and grass savannahs, freshwater lakes and streams, salt marshes and wetland, mangrove and coastal forests etc.
As we go through the story, it opens with a canoe approaching land, and the setting of the bay, the white surf of the reef, the little river running to the sea, the tropical forest, sloppy hill, and so on. Its atmosphere, ecosystems, thicker and green forest, freshwater stream, coastal forest, palm trees, thorny bushes, seagrass and depth sea etc. illustrate the reader to know that the story is set on a tropical island.
b. Why do you think Evans and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island?
➥I think Evans and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island because of the following reasons:
They took such a risk because of their greed.
They could be rich and prosperous.
They wanted to experience the skills like leadership, communication, and problem-solving.
The activity was beneficial to the people involved.
It helped to develop the ability to tackle any difficult situations.
c. Do you think the narrator of the story is racist? If yes, what made him feel superior to other races?
➥Yes, I find some sort of racist feelings in the narrator of the story. In the story, he presented Evans and Hooker as superior to the Chinese men. They killed the Chinese men brutally. Generally, Chinese people are taken as the people of the yellow race and English are taken as the white race. A racist is a person who shows prejudice and biases towards people based on their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group. In the story, the narrator dominated the Chinese as inferiors. We find the Chinese man was brutally killed by Evans and Hooker. Thus, many instances in the story state the narrator of the story looks like a racist.
d. What do you think is the moral of the story?
➥In the story ‘The Treasure in the Forest’ we find greed and destruction. “The more they desire for greed and power, the more they become selfish" is the moral of this story. Evans and Hooker's greed increases as they come to know about the treasures. They murdered the Chinese man Chang-hi brutally and they went in search of treasures with the help of the map which they got from him. People have greed generally for valuable things like money, wealth or treasures and power. Greed is much more dangerous which can lead to someone to the death. We can find such kind of matter in the story.
Reference Beyond The Text
a. Interpret the story as a mystery story.
➥ H.G. Wells’ “The Treasures in the Forest” is a mystery story involving two wastrels (neglected situation), the dead body of a Chinese man and thorns that draw blood in Hooker’s thumb. It carries many suspenseful instances such as:
The story is about two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker who seek to find the hidden treasures in the forest.
Hooker murdered Chang-hi, a Chinese man to steal the treasure map. Chang-hi grins at them when he gets murdered.
They travel by canoe sailing towards the coral island. However, neither of them understands the intention behind it.
They follow the map and soon discover a forest, then a pile of stones just like the map. But then they find a man corpse of the Chinese man.
As soon as they see the gold Evans starts to pick them up back in the canoe, however, both of them suffer a lot.
Hooker then realizes the true meaning behind the grin of Chang-hi. Thus, it is a mystery story.
b. Treasure hunting is a favourite subject of children’s stories. Remember a treasure hunting story you read in your childhood and compare and contrast it with 'The Treasure in the Forest.'
➥I read the story of Edgar Allan Poe's "Gold-Bug" treasure hunting. "Treasure in the Forest" and "Gold Beetle" are both exciting stories. Find simple tools to help you learn a new language while surfing the web. Previous Post Next Post In Goldbug, William Legrand performs treasure hunting on a remote island in South Carolina, while Evans and Hooker travel to an unnamed tropical island in search of treasure in the forest treasure.
The narrators for both stories are unknown. The island is found to be a wetland in both stories, such as thick Myrtus communis bushes. The character estimates the total amount of Gold Bug treasures to be about $ 1 million, but Forest Treasures carry treasures by canoe. Lapdogs are used on maps of gold bugs and forest treasures. Gold Bug deals with the theme of wealth and wealth, and treasures in the forest project the theme of greed and power.
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