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Securing Their Worth Though their small stature and inexperience is what might come tomind when we first think of children’s vulnerable nature, children are bothphysically
and 
emotionally vulnerable. They are not only unsure of how ablythey might handle threats upon their lives but of the very value of the lifewhich might be taken from them. Indeed, their need to be made to feelspecial inspires its own fear: namely, that it might make them vulnerable tomanipulation. Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Treasure Island 
and E. B. White’s
Charlotte’s Web
well capture how strongly children hope to be deemedworthy by discerning adults. Their child protagonists, Jim Hawkins andWilbur, are initially unsure of their worth, and therefore are also unsure of how much they deserve the high praise they often receive. They both,however, end up finding a way to be more certain that they truly matter tothose whose respect they most highly prize. Jim begins his account portraying himself as if he was, more or less, anordinary boy. It is Billy Bones, the fearsome pirate who visits his parent’sinn, who is described as being impossible to ignore. Bones, then, Jim’s firsttextual representation of someone who has a powerful presence, is theperfect person for young Jim to use as a sort of touchstone to gauge his ownrelevance. Most people were frightened by Bones (4), and though Jim tellsus that he “was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else whoknew him” (3), and though he tells us that the captain took a special interestin him, Jim portrays Bones as attending to and praising him only so as to
 
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make use of him. When he takes Jim “aside” (3), when he tells Jim that he“had taken quite a fancy to [him]” (8), both the reader and Jim sense thatBones thinks of him only as a pliable tool. Jim is portrayed as having madelittle impression at all upon Bones; it is, rather, Bones, especially when hetries to bribe Jim and thereby reveals that he thinks of him as “common”rather than special, who powerfully affects Jim.Before Jim’s truly remarkable escapades on Treasure Island, whenever Jim receives praise, the praise ends up proving to be of suspect worth. Forexample, the squire, who has just met Jim, gauges that “this lad Hawkins is atrump” (31), and makes this assessment seem worthless when hesubsequently also calls the “cook,” John Silver, “a perfect trump” (46). Silverlets Jim know right away that he thinks he is “smart as paint,” and thensuggests just how dull and easily charmed he really thinks Jim is bysubsequently trying to persuade him that “none of the pair us smart” (45).(Jim is later provided with further evidence that Silver had actually judgedhim rather ordinary when he overhears Silver call another boy “as smart aspaint” [58].) But before landing on Treasure Island, however, Jim does littleto merit being singled out as uniquely special, so it is appropriate that thepraise he receives proves to be of the kind that is frequently and readilyhanded out by flatterers. For, though he retrieves a valuable map whichlaunches a great adventure, though he spots Black Dog at the Spy Glass andputs all Long John Silver’s plans at risk, there is little sense that these actionscould not have been performed by pretty much anyone.
 
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 Jim’s account ends up suggesting that if one wants to be certain thatthe praise or attention one receives is worth something, it is really better toreceive it only after accomplishing something others might not havemanaged, and after having first been underestimated. We know, forinstance, that the only person whose status (for the reader and Jim, at least)was dramatically enhanced after encountering Bones was Doctor Livesey,who remains “calm and steady” (6) after the captain threatened him with aknife. Bones clearly had underestimated the “neat, bright doctor” (5), andas a result is described as still having him on his mind months afterwards (7).And once Jim ends up doings things which truly defy expectation, whichcannot easily be imagined as things an ordinary person could accomplish, hetoo is provided with unambiguous evidence that significant personages, suchas Livesey and Silver, have reappraised his worth.After Jim leaves his friends and joins the pirates as they embark for theisland, Livesey, who temporarily takes control of the narrative, reveals howhe “wonder[ed] over poor Jim Hawkins’s fate” (96). As far as the Livesey wasconcerned, Jim was so much the vulnerable and frail boy that he thought himvery likely to succumb to the various threats the island or, most especially,the pirates would present him with. But by ending his narration with Jim’ssudden, dramatic appearance at their camp, he documents just how muchhe had underestimated Jim’s survival skills, and likely also how stunned hewas to see Jim return to them unscathed. When he once again unexpectedlyfinds Jim before him, the doctor, who previously had a habit of interrupting
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