"Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling

This is an essay I wrote for a literature class.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

 In Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling’s point is that hard work is good for you, though it should not be at the expense of everything else. The plot and the characters contribute to this message.

Though it would be funny, the moral of Captains Courageous is not actually “falling off an ocean liner is the cure for all your problems.” The actual moral, that hard work is important as a formative experience, is much more suited to the narrative. If not for the final two chapters, the point would be more direct and less complex; however, the protagonist’s father insists the protagonist get an education, which the father regrets never having done. This contributes the second part of the point, that work should not be pursued to the detriment of everything else in one’s life; the protagonist’s father made his fortune and knows the ways of the world, but is relatively untrained in other areas, and he wants better for his son.

The main character, Harvey Cheyne, is initially a dissolute, spoiled, and rather annoying young man. However, in the first chapter, he falls off an ocean liner, and is picked up by a fishing schooner: the We’re Here. He works on the We’re Here for three months while it completes its voyage; though Harvey initially tries to get the captain to turn around, the captain refuses, and Harvey eventually grows to know and appreciate the crew of the schooner. The We’re Here eventually returns to land shortly before the end of the book, and Harvey is reunited with his father. His character arc runs from initially refusing to do anything and believing that—as a multimillionaire’s son—he’s somehow intrinsically better than the crew of the We’re Here, to eventually joining them and retaining the lessons learned on the ship throughout the rest of his life. This arc reflects the book’s main point.

The other characters in the story are also worth mentioning. One of them, the captain’s son Dan, initially serves as a foil for Harvey; Dan has been on the We’re Here for his entire life, and consequently has a much less spoiled and more down-to-earth attitude than Harvey’s. As Harvey matures, he and Dan become closer friends. The other crew of the We’re Here are somewhat less important to the story, though they each have their own contributions to make; in particular, the captain, Disko Troop, serves as Harvey’s surrogate father figure during Harvey’s time on the schooner and is the primary one to impart the book’s message to him. Harvey’s real father is also important to the story, acting as a moderating influence on the message.

In conclusion, Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous is a story of a spoiled rich boy who falls off an ocean liner, temporarily joins the crew of a fishing schooner, and learns that doing actual work is good for him.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for just general maturity level.

4 stars.

(Endnote: I thought this was about pirates when I first read it a few years ago. I was kind of disappointed.)