# does Long John Silver care about Jim, or just use him to his benefit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983 "2011-04-11T18:38:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/21 "2011-04-12T00:55:13Z")
I prefer the “Manny Peoples wonder and now I ask” gambit. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/22 "2011-04-12T00:55:17Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I already explained in a previous post, my friend is made up. > > I use him when I don’t know what else to put in the OP because I think the topic title explains enough Ah, gotcha. Hadn’t read the other post explaining about the whole friend thing. My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/23 "2011-04-12T00:56:12Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I already explained in a previous post, my friend is made up… Then whose weed smoker did you break? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/24 "2011-04-12T00:57:46Z")
Okay, I feel a bit better now that I know I am not the only person that knows more about “fish n chips” than fine literature 🙂 Sorry for the hijack. Please continue your learned discussion fine fellows. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/25 "2011-04-12T01:00:42Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I first read this book in 7th grade and have loved it ever since. It is one of my favorite books. I often hear, even written on the back of the book, that Long John Silver is a great example of a morally ambiguous character. But I am not sure I see that. Silver seems to me always only doing what is best for him. He is loyal neither to the pirates nor to Jim and company. He always seems to protect Jim when he can use it to bargain later (I protected Jim, try to save me from swinging). I think Long John Silver is always just looking out for #1. I’m trying to figure out how LJS was morally ambiguous and I’m coming up short. LJS certainly wasn’t unnecessarily bloodthirsty, after all, he did try to talk people into joining his mutiny and did not kill them until they refused. What Silver had going for him was a level of charm that belied his sinister nature. I think he developed a genuine affection for Jim, but, as others have said, he would have sold Jim out in a second if it meant saving his own hide or getting the treasure. I don’t think Silver is ambiguous at all. He’s evil. He’s just a more complex evil than the manically laughing villain. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/26 "2011-04-12T01:25:14Z")
Sorry if I was too abrupt. I think the ambiguity is whether he actually has genuine affection for Jim, or whether it’s all plot and design. I don’t doubt that he would slit Jim’s throat if it furthered his goals. The ambiguity that I saw was whether he really likes Jim, or whether it’s an act. Not that he would let any affection get in his way, mind. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/27 "2011-04-12T01:50:28Z")
Agree that he genuinely likes Jim but would cut his throat and sleep like a baby if it stood between him and freedom. The book said he never saw his “negress” (by implication his wife-like person) again- human connections aren’t that big a deal to him- and he kills without hesitation several people he’s befriended in the book. His intelligence, charm and remorselessness are what makes him such a good villain; he’s two faced, but one face is just as real as the other. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/28 "2011-04-12T02:05:49Z")
I always assumed he did meet up with his negress (who I always assumed was his wife and he genuinely loved her like a wife, at least as much as that meant in the 1700s for pirates) after he escaped at the end. I don’t recall it saying that it never saw his negress again (and how would Jim know anyway?) ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/29 "2011-04-12T02:11:07Z")
I too was sooo hoping this was about the restaurant. Absurdity fail. ---
**Author:** ![Just1Lurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@Just1Lurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just1Lurk)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/30 "2011-04-12T03:42:38Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I always assumed he did meet up with his negress (who I always assumed was his wife and he genuinely loved her like a wife, at least as much as that meant in the 1700s for pirates) after he escaped at the end. I don’t recall it saying that it never saw his negress again (and how would Jim know anyway?) Penultimate paragraph: > [@](#): > > Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean out of my life, but I dare say he met his old negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/31 "2011-04-12T17:59:40Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > PSXer seems quite the **bunburyist**. But why jump down his throat about it? I agree with him that the title in the OP was self-explanatory. (bolding mine) I learned a new word today. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/32 "2011-04-12T20:37:26Z")
I agree that he is very selfserving. he genuinely likes Jim, but as people have mentioned he will do what he needs to without a lick of conscience bothering him afterwards. I should amend it slightly, when drunk he might get maudlin about ‘old passed shipmates’ that he had to lie to, cheat on, steal from or kill. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/33 "2011-04-13T12:14:06Z")
I don’t think Silver would ever get drunk, because he knows what can happen to cheating, murdering bastards when they let their guard down. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983/34 "2011-04-13T13:27:56Z")
I think the question of whether he likes Jim, and whether he would cut Jim’s throat if it served his purposes, are two separate questions that are both answered Yes. Same for his wife. Yes, he would try to find her and hook up with her again - she’s got his money. If she tried to hold out on him - he would kill her too. And I agree, he’s not “morally ambiguous” - he’s a charming sociopath. _Treasure Island_ is full of great scenes, but two of the most chilling are the one where Long John Silver kills the seaman by spearing him in the back with his crutch and then stabbing him. and (especially) the scene near the end, when Jim is captured by the pirates and they are off to get the treasure. And Long John Silver gives Jim “a black look”, and Jim realizes that Long John doesn’t really give a shit - they find the treasure, and Long John doesn’t need Jim anymore, and Jim is dead meat. Then they find the treasure is gone, and instantly Long John hands Jim a pistol, allies himself with Jim and the others, and turns on the charm. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-long-john-silver-care-about-jim-or-just-use-him-to-his-benefit/577983.md?page=1)