The Treasure in the Forest Story by H G Wells | Summary and Question Answer

Summary

The story “The Treasure in the Forest” written by H.G. Wells is an adventurous and threatening story in which how unpreparedness and greed of two English men can lead them to the painful death is presented in an artistic way. It shows the greed brings misfortune and results awful consequences. 

According to the story, the two English men namely Evans and Hooker take a voyage to the deserted island on a canoe. They sail the whole night and are so tired, hungry and sleepy however they have woven a sweet dream of getting gold (treasure) there which Chang-hi had buried after he had taken from the Spanish shipwreck. When they arrive at the island, they are too confused and almost lost as they don’t have any idea where the gold is buried. Having been too fatigue Evans daydreams. In his dream he sees three Chinese men sitting around the fire and talking unintelligibly. Evans comes closer to Chang-hi and catches him by his pig tail. They struggle and finally Evans kills Chang-hi. Before death, Chang-hi grins at him. As Chang-hi is murdered, he grows larger and larger. The gold turns to coal and Chang-hi feeds him with coal. Then, Evans wakes up from the dream.

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They sail forward and reach a lagoon. They see Chang-hi there. They kill him and snatch a map which is creased. They see some dots on the map and follow towards the dotted location on the map.

They reach a creek and quench their thirst drinking water. They see the palm trees and the path towards the gold burial spot was bushy. With much difficulty they reach the spot of the burial. They are startled looking at a dead man whose body is swollen with blue bruises. He was killed. They can see a hole where the gold is buried. Evans puts his hand into the hole to take the gold ingots. They become extremely happy as their dreams of getting the gold is fulfilled. He puts the gold ingots in his jacket. Meanwhile, Evans feels aching in his finger which is pierced by a slender thorn. Gradually, he becomes like dozed because of the pain and burning. Seeing his condition, Hooker picks the gold. He also feels similar pain. He is not aware of the danger that has caused Evans. The gold ingots were covered by the poison of the most poisonous snake. Finally, their unawareness and greed cause them to die even after achieving the gold.

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Understanding the Text

a. Describe the expository scene of the story.

Ans: - The hunters Evans and Hook were heading towards the island on the canoe which was approaching the land. The bay was open, and there was a gap in the white surf of the reef marked where the little river ran out to the sea; the virgin forest was thicker and deeper green that showed its course down the distant hill slope. The forest was closer to the beach. Far beyond in the dim and almost cloudlike in texture, mountains could be seen like suddenly frozen waves. The sky was blazed.

b. What does the map look like and how do Evans and Hooker interpret it?

Ans: - The map looked like worn out and rough. By much folding, it was creased and worn to the pitch of separation. Evans and Hook interpret that the curved and twisting line is the river and the area with star and dotted line in the map shows the place where the treasure is hidden. 

c. How did Evan and Hooker know about the treasure?

Ans: - After Evans and Hook interpretated where the treasure was hidden. They sensed a Chinese man having a chit chat with his friends partly audible and partly comprehensible English accent. Evans and Hooker eavesdropped what the Chinese men were talking and they knew about the treasure.

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D. Describe Evan’s dream.

Ans: - In the course of their journey, Evan began to doze and saw a strange dream which was about the treasure and Chang-hi, a Chinese man. In the dream, Evans and Hooker were in the forest and saw a little fire where three Chinese men sat around it and talked in fragmented inaudible and incomprehensible voice. Evans went closer and he knew that Chang-hi reburied the gold from a Spanish galleon after shipwrecked on the island. Evans caught Chang-hi by his pig-tail and they had a struggle. Chang-hi was killed. After some time, Chang-hi was seen grinning at him. Suddenly the gold turned to coals and started feeding to Evans. Another Chinese man started shouting. At the meantime, Evans woke up from his dream.

e. What do the treasure hunters see when they walk to the island?

Ans: - The hunters see three palm trees in a line with a clump of bushes and dim white flowers at the mouth of the stream. They see a dead body of a Chinese man named Chang-hi.

f. In what condition did the treasure hunters find the dead man?

Ans: - When Evan and Hooker reached the place where the treasure was buried, they saw an ominous dead body 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?

Ans: - When the gold hunters found the gold from the place where it was buried, they spread a jacket on the ground and put the ingots of gold on it to carry the ingots safely to the canoe.

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h. How were Evan and Hooker poisoned?

Ans: - The ingots had poison which Evans and Hooker didn’t know at first. Later, when Evans touched the gold ingots, he felt a slender thorn like object pricked in his finger. That was the poison. The poison spread all over his body, and he fell down. Hooker became greedy and wanted to take the gold ingots. He was also poisoned as soon as he touched the gold ingots.

Reference to the Context

a. How do you know the story is set on a tropical island?

Ans: - The setting of the story is on an island which is deserted and uninhabited, full of virgin thick trees. The main character of the story Evans and Hooker head towards the island on a canoe. The tropical forest, fresh water lakes and streams, wetland, mangrove and coastal forest, coastal swamps, coral reef and deep-sea show that the story is set on an island.

b. Why do you think Evan and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island?

Ans: - Generally, human nature is full of greed of material properties and they want to take risks and challenges to get the properties. I think Evans and Hooker, the characters in the story took a risk of finding the buried treasure on the desert island because of their greed of the gold treasure which is reported to have been hidden on the island by a shipwrecked Spanish galleon. Their greed drove them to take any types of challenges and risks to get the gold treasure. 

c. Do you think the narrator of the story is racist? If yes, what made him feel superior to other races?

Ans: - A racist is a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards people based on their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. Yes, I think the narrator of the story has a feeling of racism. He thinks himself as a superior of all because he is an English man. Both, Evans and Hooker dominate to the way the Chinese talk to each other.

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d. What do you think is the moral of the story?

Ans: - The story shows that humans take any kind of risks to get wealth. They have a greed which is destructive itself. The ends of over greed is the destruction that destroys the humans. The greed is the biggest enemy of humans that anyhow destroys al last. The story shows people can do anything for money. Evans and Hooker don’t fall back to kill the Chinese man for the sake of getting the treasure. In spite of knowing the ingots full of poison, Evans and Hooker don’t step back but hey want to anyhow take the treasure. Another moral of the story is that we must make some preparation before doing any task. Evans and Hooker hadn’t made any preparation but hey only wanted to capture the treasure. As a result of their greediness, they were poisoned. This shows that greediness leads to destruction.

Reference beyond the text.

a. Interpret the story as a mystery story.

Ans: - The story ‘Treasure in the Forest’ is a completely mysterious story. The setting of the story itself is mysterious. The characters show mysterious behaviour as they hide what they have in their mind. The mission of their journey is finding the treasure buried in the forest on the island. The plot is attractive but it has many twists which can’t be predicted easily as what happens to the next. The most mysterious event of the story is the grinning of the Chinese man named Chang-hi. When Hooker kills him to grab the map which shows the place of the treasure burial, he shows mysterious grinning at his death. Evans and Hooker don’t understand the grin of Chang-hi. The readers take it as a mysterious event why Evans and Hooker were killed and what by. Moreover, the setting of the story is at island and the atmosphere is quite bizarre.

About the Author:

Tanka Bhattarai is a Second class Secondary Level English teacher currently teaching at Shahid Smriti Secondary School, Dharan, Sunsari. He is also an MToT of Education Training Centre, Koshi Province.