The treasure in the forest summary and exercise | Class 12 English Notes

The treasure in the forest summary and exercise | Class 12 English Notes | NEB

Before reading

Answer the following questions.

a.Have you read any story about treasure hunting before? If yes, what is its title?

Ans. Yes, of course. Its title is 'The old man and his lazy sons."

b.Why do you think people take risk of treasure hunting?

Ans. I think people take sist of treasure hunting because they want to be rich quickly and with less efforts.

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Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a.Describe the expository scene of the story.

Ans. The story opens with the canoe approaching the land, by two treasure hunters. Evans and Hooker, a little river flowing 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?

Ans. The map looks like a rough paper with some twisting line. Stars and dots. Evan and Hooker interpret reef as it the twisting lines as river, stars as the treasure place and they ignore the dots.

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

Ans. They knew about the treasure from the secret conversation of the chinese and also from the map which they obtained from them.

d.Describe Evan's dream.

Ans. Evans had a dream about the treasure and change his status. In the dream, they were in the forest and saw a little fire where three chinamen sat around it and talked in whispering voices in English. Evans went closer and knew that Chang-hi took the gold from a Spanish galleon after shipwrecked and had 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 him.

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

Ans. They saw a gap in the somber darkness where white shafts of hot sunlight smoke into the forest, which was far ahead.

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

Ans. As they reached the place where the map show the treasure they found dead body of the man who looked like the chinese man with puffed and purple neck and swollen hands and ankles.

g.How did the treasure hunters try to carry gold ingots to the canoe?

Ans. As they have nothing to put the golden ingots, so they put ingots on a jacket and lift two opposite sides to carry gold into the canoe.

h.How were Evan and Hooker poisoned?

Ans. As the poisonous little throne had punctured their skin, they were poisoned.

Reference to the context

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

Ans. The story "The treasures in the forest" begins with two men, Evans and Hooker heading to the Island in their canoe in the heat of the noon sun.

As we know, tropical Islands are known to have uniquely and naturally variable ecosystems, including tropical rainforest, open woodland and grass savannas, fresh water lakes and streams, salt marshes and mudflats, mangroves and coastal littoral forests, seagrass, fringing and offshore, coral reefs and deep sea trenches and abyssal plains.

In the story also narrator describes the feature of the tropical island as the white surf of the reef, the fresh water river running to the sea, the virgin forest, sloppy hills etc.

The atmosphere described by the narrator is as like as the atmosphere of tropical island. The thicker and green forest with big trees like palm, thorny bushes, sea grasses, freshwater stream, coastal forest etc. help us to known 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. The story talked about two English men heard that there was gold (treasure) on an island and got a map from a chinese. So, they rowed a canoe to go to the island. They drove their boat into a lagoon and drove up a river in the forest, they followed the map and succeeded to reach the place. They packed up the gold and suddenly Evans got pricked on his hand, he tried to forget about this but this poisonous puncture made him dying only in a while. I think Evans and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure in a deserted island because, of the following reasons:

Their greed for wealth clouded their judgment.
They might think risks as rewards.
It is said that "Gold makes people crazy", it seems so in their case too.

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

Ans. The story "The treasure in the forest" is the story about two treasure hunters. Evans and Hooker who seek to find the hidden treasure in the forest. For which they killed the Chinese man. We can find some sorts of racist feelings of the narrator in the story. He presents Evans and Hooker as superior to that of the Chinese man in the story.

A racist is a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards people on the basis of membership of a particular racial or ethnoic group, typically one that is minority or marginalized. In the story, Evans and Hooker kill the Chinese man brutally. The narrator doesn't talk more about the Chinese man. Hooker also says

"Have you lost your wit?" to Evans, which reflects dominating nature of Hooker over Evans. Thus, the story states that the narrator of the story looks like a racist.

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

Ans. The main idea of 'The Treasure in the Forest' is to tell us not to take a risk when you are not well prepered. The two English men went to a strange forest and lost their life quickly. Two English men heard that there was gold on an island. They got a map from a Chinese. So, they rowed a canoe to reach the island. They drove their boat into a lagoon and drone up a river in the forest. They followed the map and succeed to reach the place. At this time, they found the corpse of a Chinese that they talked to. They were scared and started to worry about their safety but finally nothing happened. They packed up the gold and suddenly Evans got a puncture from the gold. Evans tried to forgot about this poisonous puncture that made him die only in a while. Evans told the other guy. Hooker, to throw the bad gold away. However, Hooker was scared and didn't understand what his friend told him and Hooker touched the gold by mistake. At last, both of them died.

This story succeeds to show the terible situation when they faced the danger. This will give people a warning. Also the story says that "The more persons become greedy for power and wealth, the more he/she becomes selfish." The excess greed for wealth clouds the judgment, which is dangerous.

Reference beyond the text

a. Interpret the story as a mystery story.

Ans. The story "The Treasure in the Forest" is the story about two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker who seek to find the hidden treasure in the forest. There are many suspicious instances in the story:

They murder a Chinese man, Change-hi to steal the treasure map, but Changehi grins (smiles) at them when he gets murdered.
They travel by canoe sailing towards the coral island. However, none of them understands the intension behind.
When the follow the map and trace the location at treasure, they find a corpse of a Chinese man already there.
The death of Chinese man also becomes suspicious for sometime.
It is also full of suspense about the poisonous thorn that pricked them.
Hooker understood the meaning behind the grin of Change-hi at the last of the story.

b. Treasure hunting is a favorable 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. I have read a treasure hunting story named "The Gold Bug" whichwaswrittenby Edgar Allan Poe. In both of the stories, narrator is anonymous. These both stories are suspense stories. The story "The Gold Bug" is set on a remote island in south Carolina where William Legrand goes on treasure hunting, while in "The Treasure in the Forest" Evan and Hooker heard to an unnamed tropical island in search of treasure. Both of the islands are found to be marshy with thick myrtle shrubs, big trees, fresh water river etc.

In the sory "The Gold Bug", the character used a pet dog to trace the location of the treasure. He estimates the total value of the treasure about one and half million dollors. But in "The Treasure in the Forest", they use map to race the location. They don't estimate the total value of treasure but seems very high in value. They try to carry treasure in a canoe. Both the stories are treasure hunting stories but their main ideas (themes) seem to be different. "The Gold Bug" deals with the themes like wealth and fortune and "The Treasure in the Forest" deals with the theme of Greed and Power.

The treasure in the forest summary and exercise | Class 12 English Notes | NEB