Jim Hawkins has, for his example the following people:
           *His father an innkeeper,
           *Billy Bones, an old pirate,
           *Squire Trelawney, a magistrate,
           *Dr. Livesey, a doctor and constable,
           *Long John Silver, a charismatic pirate (the antagonist of the story), and
           *Captain Smollett, the captain of the Hispaniola
 
The character that is the most dynamic in the story is Long John Silver.  Long John has to charm his way into everyone’s graces and is kind, along with being corrupt.  When his kindness and charm don’t work, he is willing to use violence and force.  He appears to be the most thoughtful member of the group.  He has no moral compass and is loyal to himself only.  The other characters in the story are not as dynamic.  His father is afraid of Billy Bones and dies early in the story.  Squire Trelawney is foolish; Captain Smollett is knowledgeable, wise, and uncompromising. Dr. Livesey is an honest man who will help others and seems very gentle, yet is seeking to find the treasure suggested by the map.
Jim is young and looking for adventure.  He puts his faith in his own abilities and does not follow the captain's or doctor’s instructions; he does not join the pirates but is manipulated by others. However, he survives and returns with his share of the treasure.  The story does not really tell you what Jim does after, only that he continues to have nightmares about his experiences.  You are left wondering what type of person Jim becomes and what he does with his share of the treasure.  You are also left wondering which character Jim chooses to follow and why. 
The two characters most present in the story are Dr. Livesey and Long John Silver.  Of these two men, which is the one who will have the most impact on Jim, and why? Jim starts out as a very timid boy, but by the end, he outwits the pirates and rescues the ship.  He has shown more courage, charisma, and independence than the captain, squire, or doctor.  It seems he has learned much from Long John Silver.  How will these events shape him and his decision-making in the future?  Will he develop the characteristics of an English gentleman, a pirate, or a bit of both?

I never thought I would be a fan of Louis L’Amour, but I was wrong.  I seem to pick up a lot of lessons or ideas from his books. 
As I sat down to write about this book, I noticed that in the front of this book, there is a dedication:  “To my Father…who knew what it meant to wear the badge”.  Interesting thought.  Most of the L’Amour books that I have read were about the frontier and the skills or ideas needed to establish a frontier.  This book started differently compared to several of the other books that I have read.   It opens with a coyote attempting to catch a chipmunk.  He fails, but in the process of time the area changed due to the weather.   It then moves to a trapper that finds a nugget of gold and takes it, and carries it around for many years.  Near the end of his life, he decides to return to the area where he found the nugget.  He shares his story with 3 men but dies in his attempt to return area.  The three men follow the trapper’s information and find gold.  Well, what does that have to do with wearing a badge, you wonder?  I did.  
You are well into the book before any badge is mentioned.  The three gentlemen set up a claim and registered it with the intent of building a “town”.  There is no thought about law or order, just hunting for gold.  In this town of mostly men, there is a lot of gambling, shooting, fighting, drinking, and drifting of people.  L’Amour paints a vivid picture of a “boom” town.  A town that is full of violence.  One of the three from the beginning of the story seems surprised that there is so much lawlessness.  He wants to see schools, churches, and a community set up, but what he has is a ‘dog-eat-dog world’.  Very violent men will do whatever it takes to get what they want.  Some with their fights, some with weapons, but the story of this town is very grim.  It is a L’Amour novel, so you know a hero will arise and he does.  The hero teaches us that “if you’re going to have peace rather than violence, both sides have got to want it.  One side alone can’t make peace.”   And “The trouble with most folks coming out here is that they’ve been protected so long they’re no longer even conscious of it.  Back where they come from there are rules and laws, curbstones and sidewalks, and policemen to handle violence.  The result is that violence is no longer real for them; its it something you read about but that never happens to you.”
Definitely some ideas to think about.  What makes a good town?  What makes a good society?  Is it right to use violence to chase away violence?  Why?  Is there another option to violence?  Can violence be halted without more violence?  What does it mean to wear a badge?  What type of person/people is/are required to have a place that has peace?
 

Premises of Communism
I have just finished reading The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen.  I think this book does a good job of introducing what Communism is and also gives brief histories of the people who influenced and promoted Communism.   One of the areas that I have been pondering a bit more is the ‘Major Premises of Communism’ from the author’s point of view using the writings of those that promoted it (I won’t provide the quoted source below, just the premise.  if you would like to know who said each statement, please see the book for more information).
Major Premises of Communism:

1.  Everything in existence came about as a result of ceaseless motion among the forces of nature. 
2. Human beings are only graduate beasts.
3. There is no such thing as innate right or wrong
4. That all religion must be overthrown because it inhibits the spirit of world revolution.

 
 
I think that another premise should be included, or maybe it fits under #2, and that is the belief in human nature.  This worldview believes that humans should start as a blank slate.  I have been listening to the book: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker. If you believe that man is born as a blank slate than that would also mean that you can fill that slate with information or experiences that will program the mind to create a perfect society; A classless society that promotes universal peace and prosperity.  It would make creating the perfect mind, child, or society a little bit easier if we were just trained to be what is wanted or needed.  Having a complex innate human nature means that not everything is trainable.  Society could / would have flaws that demand correction by the Dictator of the Proletariat; therefore, there would always be a need for government.   Can Communism ever reach its goals without blank slates?   

All of the characters of this book have been raised in a society of inner rings. 
Both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley were interested in women who were “below their society”.  It is interesting that Mr. Bingley was less affected than Mr. Darcy.  Mr. Darcy had more struggles with the hierarchies of his society than Mr. Bingley.   Yet Mr. Darcy is usually listed as the ideal man (see The Awakening of Miss Prim), not Mr. Bingley.  What makes Mr. Darcy the more desirable of the men in Pride and Prejudice?    Is it because of his choices at the end, where he helps in a crisis, or that he moves from a system of hierarchy to a circle of influence?  We see through the novel that he has influence over others based on his position of birth, along with his friendship with Mr. Bingley.  At the end of the novel, he was able to influence others around him with clarity and energy in a way that helped remedy the Bennetts’ problems.  Or is it some other reason that Mr. Darcy captures more hearts than Mr. Bingley?

 
Interesting idea that if you use your powers or gifts to help yourself it changes you but if you share them you are changed in a different way.  Using your powers or gifts for yourself you become a selfish and angry person that destroys things.  We seem to want to create superheroes in our life to save the day.  Is that the best way?  Brandon Sanderson shows a very different way of looking at those with unhuman amounts of power.  Following the idea that power corrupts.  In this particular story a boy who was filled with desires for revenge uses all his energy to learn about those that have unhuman powers (named Epics).  He uses his knowledge to seek revenge for the death of his father.  As he bands with a group that work to kill off the epics, he misses that there are epics among him.   He learns that there is a ‘humanness’ in each of those with powers too.  So what is more important?  Destroying all that use their powers incorrectly, or help creating a better place to live?  Does David find a better goal than just revenge?
 
Then more importantly, what am I to learn about human nature from this book?  
Do I look to other people to create a society?  How am I involved in making my community a better place?  Do I understand where I am flawed and what I need to do?

As I have been trying to think about this book and what I have learned from it, I have been wondering about what the book is about.  I have now read the book twice.  Is this book about education or romance? Is this an incomplete hero cycle?  Did the plot change from education to romance or is there more to it?  Is this a tragedy because Miss Prim does not marry the unnamed male lead?
I read the book, so now what?  What did I learn from reading this?  In order to help me figure out what I wanted to focus on, I reviewed my notes and then focused on the title.  What does awakening mean?  The Britannica Dictionary lists these definitions: to stop sleeping; to become aware of something.   I believe the writer is using the idea of becoming aware of something.  Where do I see an awakening?
At the beginning of the book, Miss Prim is hurriedly walking through San Ireneo de Arnois where she does not notice the pretty shops.  She is already identifying herself as different from others and feeling that she was born at the wrong time and place.  
The book ends with Miss Prim is in Italy talking to the hotel receptionist requesting a check out.  The receptionist asks if she has received bad news, Miss Prim states: “Actually”, said Miss Prim, eyes shining, picturing a door being closed with infinite patience, “it’s good news.  Extraordinary news, I’d say.”  She sighed euphorically.  “It’s strange and wonderful news.”….an hour later, she [the receptionist] watched the beautiful, graceful woman walk out of the hotel toward the waiting taxi with her chin held high and a gentle smile on her lips.”
As I reflect on the word awaken and apply it to my experiences, I reviewed what I would have called an “awakening experience”.   I have had only a couple of them, but I was changed by them.  I started to do things differently and seek different ideas.  Therefore, on my second read I was looking for something that might be similar between my experience and Miss Prim’s experience.   The only place that I identified was the last page of the book.  She has ‘shining eyes’ and is excited about something.  The receptionist describes her as beautiful and graceful with her head up and a smile on her face.  That is the first time I remember hearing any of these words applied to Miss Prim.  To me that is an awakening experience.  Everything else in the book was just showing you the path it took for her to travel before she “awakened”.    You are left to wonder what she is planning to do so you can’t tell if the story is a comedy (happy ending) or tragedy (taking the path of mediocracy, quitting, or death and sadness). 
To me the whole book is about the journey she had to travel before she found her purpose.  I remember my own experiences.  I had goals and was learning.  I was growing and striving to reach my goals.  At that awakening experience though I found my goals needed to be changed.  However, those goals had led me to the point that I had enough information to see that I needed to make a change to my goals.  Each step on the path was needed to help reveal what could be.  I think Miss Prim was having those same experiences.  As she learned about education and relationships (personal, mentored, and romantic) she was getting ready for that awakening that she didn’t know she needed.  She thought she was awake but found out that she was not seeing things as clearly as she needed to.
I think there are a lot of interesting quotes and ideas expressed in the book that really get you thinking, which is what she did in Italy.  As she processed those ideas and pondered on what to do, when an opportunity presented itself (the letter), the puzzle pieces aligned, and she could now see the picture and direction of where to go.   This fulfilled the epigraph in the book: “They think that they regret the past, when they are but longing after the future (John Henry Newman).”  If all goes well Miss Prim will be entering the future ready for the next step of her progression.   She has awakened to new possibilities.    What those possibilities are we are left to imagine for ourselves.  The real question is what will we do?  Will be look to the past with regret or move to the future and act on the ideas we have?

    There are a couple of lines from Emilia that I have been pondering.  In Act 4, Scene 3, line 85, Emilia says: “But I think it is their husband’s faults if wives do fall.”   The speech talks about how woman can sometimes be treated by their spouses and ends with “Then let them use us well: else let them know, the ills we do, their ills instruct us so.” 
  I have been pondering about how we treat others.  How easy it is to hurt others when we focus on ourselves and don’t consider how our actions harm others.  It is not just words or lack of words; our actions are very important.
In this play there are a lot of reactions.  Reaction of people to Iago’s words.    Iago is the ultimate bad guy; a vicious manipulator that for some reason is out to pull everyone one down.  Why were people unwilling to see this, I am not sure.  The play is called Othello, but it is more about how people react to Iago.  But is that not just like a manipulator?  The spotlight is not on the manipulator but someone else.   We find ourselves trusting the wrong people and not relying on the evidence that we could collect for ourselves.  As in this play, Othello had the ability to gather his own information.  He was a general.  With that title comes responsibility and experience, yet he did not use that when he was struggling with his weakness.  
  As Oliver DeMille asks: How are we like Othello?   How are we showing our price or lack of security in who we are?  Shakespeare wrote to a Christian audience where pride seems to be a weakness in many of us.  What weakness do we need to reform or guard against so that we do not fall prey to the Iago’s of this world? 
Othello turned to Iago instead of Desdemona to gather information about Desdemona.  This becomes even more alarming in that Othello and Desdemona are married.  There was obviously a very big imbalance in their relationship.  Outside of our relationship with God, our spouse should be our highest priority.   The damage Iago caused could have been minimized if Othello had put his relationship with Desdemona above his reputation.  Three people would still be living: Othello, Desdemona and Emilia. 
   Ephesians 5:25 (KJV) reads: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it”.   Emilia seems to warn us what can happen when we get our priorities out of order.  In particular when we say we love someone, but our actions don’t match our words, we can find ourselves in a very hallow relationship.  Hopefully not as destructive as Othello’s and Desdemona.   

Interesting that I have two books on my self where the main character is a pig.  Charlotte's Web and Animal Farm.  They have very opposite ideas and purposes.   Charlotte's Web has a very heartwarming and optimistic feel.  There is friendship and descriptions about how beautiful life is.  The farm is painted as an ideal place to learn and grow.  In Animal Farm the setting is about human oppression and then animal oppression.  The farm is a place for the fittest and smartest to rule the weaker.  

I wonder what E.B. White wanted us to learn from this book? 

I read from one posting how this story can be used to talk about the carbon footprint of raising a pig or that pigs should not die to satisfy a human's appetite.  I guess when I visit my memories of this story and re-read the story, I don't see that message.   I think I prefer to see the power of friendship and mentoring in this story.  Charlotte mentors Wilbur.  Charlotte offers to Wilbur friendship and through that friendship Wilbur grows and becomes a "better pig".  By better I mean he begins to think and act differently.  He then learns to be a friend and mentor to others (Charlotte's children).  Its a small little farm utopia.  

This is a book that I have read with my children several times before.  Reading this book while looking for the principles listed in Oliver DeMille's book "We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident" adds more power to the story in my opinion.   In this speculative fiction story is a post WWIII story where a leader finds a way to eliminate all crime through a behavior modification system implanted in a people.  However there is a problem in that the community is struggling so they capture others to bring them into their system, implant them, and then let them know they are not part of a organization where they will be given the gift of better education, health, food, clothing, and technology.   The other groups that have been captured should be eager to join this more advanced society.  But are they?  

Some of the questions I think the book asks are:
1.  if you remove the ability to choose wrong from a people will they automatically always choose the good and right? Will they be happy?
2.  Can you train people to always be good? Should you?  Why/why not?
3.  How much are we willing to give up for security?
4.  How much are we willing to give up for freedom?
5.  What are some of the freedom's we have lost that should have fought for?  Why didn't we?
6.  If a person is raised without agency, once it is granted to them what will they do?  
7.  What happens do a generation if they have not developed their own moral character but have been forced to "be good"?
8.  What do we do know to promote freedom?