Mitchel Follett
How successful is Stevenson in appealing to his Target Audience in the first 6 chapters of Treasure Island?
Stevenson originally wrote the book for his stepson Samuel Lloyd Osbourne on a holiday in Braemar in 1881. This means the book was intended to be read by teenage boys, although there are many characters so age does not matter too much. However he made the map of Treasure Island before he even began to write the book. In part 1 there is only one female character though (Jims’ mum) which means the target audience of the book is males. Whilst writing the book Stevenson realised he could market it and eventually the book was published in the ‘Young folks’ magazine, this supports the theory that the book was intended for teens. The subject of the book is pirates and treasure which will interest and appeal to teenage boys. Stevenson uses a Pseudonym to subliminally suggest that he himself was a seafaring man – Captain George North and was familiar with the Sea this would appeal to children as they may believe the book is more authentic. Another way of appealing to children is by making the narrator of the book ‘Jim’ a teenager himself which works well. Victorian parents would also approve of this book because it implemented good morals such as obey your parents- as Jim doesn’t disregard others because of their appearances, don’t give into corruption an example of this is when he is offered money by the captain to get him a drink but refuses, instead he does it for his fathers’ sake. Be kind, polite, mature, hard working, always help others regardless of their ways as the narrator and main character Jim does – another example of this is shown when he is frightened of Pew, the blind beggar – however remains polite to him. Another way in which he appeals to his audience is by using techniques such as Imagination – he is very subtle in doing this, like in chapter one when Jim makes reference to his dreams he says ‘How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you’. This makes the reader think
