At one point of this elaborate tale the main character, David Balfour, is shipwrecked and washed up on an Island just off the coast of Scotland. While thankful to be alive, the lone occupant experiences inconveniences any stranded hero might endure and struggles quite simply just to continue to exist. Balfour wanders the circumference of the island and finds on one side he can see the tops of buildings indicating there is a town just across the bay. He attempts to cross the freezing, deep waters and fails. His weakened condition and a lack of ability to swim prevents his rescue and requires a series of desperate, pitiful survival inducing efforts.
Periodic torrential downpours make water relatively plentiful and shade from the Island's wooded center is essential. There are lots of fish and Balfour is very capable of catching them but digesting said fish is a game of Russian roulette. While the fish look identical they have completely opposite side effects. Sometimes, they are a source of temporary nourishment and other times he experiences food poisoning type explosions and cramping. During the latter he fears he will die and then he fears that he won't. As days go by and starvation sets in he craves the fish but is understandably fearful. Stevenson portrays this pitiful existence brilliantly as he paints a picture of increasing desperation to get off the island. On two separate occasions a fishing boat sails by. The bedraggled man goes crazy, flailing his arms and calling out to the men on the boat. Hopes of rescue are dashed when rather than attempting to help the poor man stuck on an island the fishermen smile, wave, and even laugh. What kind of people would be so heartless? The second of these two occasions the boat got close enough to shout at Balfour but could not rescue him due to yards of sharp reef buffering the shore. During this transaction, two words were understood by our castaway. "Tide"and a frustrated version of "whatever". A lightbulb goes off in Balfour's brain! He heads to the bay that seemed impassable and walks across the shallow water of low tide and into the town. Our hero had the means of escaping twice a day each of the seven days he was stranded. As Stevenson gives a window to his hero's thoughts we see the simplicity of this solution. In fact David Balfour acknowledges that had he stopped and rested the solution would have come easily.
What a great metaphor! How often do we feel stranded and alone, wandering around attempting to provide for ourselves? We crave our sin that leaves us temporarily satisfied at best with the potential of horrific explosions as the alternative. Usually, our sin is feeding our isolation and the whole time we have been given the means of getting off the island. We all have moments in life when we cling to our own devices of survival instead of giving in to the means of grace already offered.
