Captains Courageous

Rating:
Summary: grand tale of adventure and human nature
Review: Captains Courageous is a wonderful story of a pampered and indulged boy, the son of a millionaire, named Harvey Cheyne. He has no responsibilities and is given anything he wants. He lacks respect for anyone and that includes himself. He is washed overboard from a luxury liner while on a trip with his mother and is picked up by a fisherman. The fishing boat can not return him immediately because they have a crew that needs to earn a living. Harvey's family presumes that he is dead, drowned at sea. The story of Harvey's growing up involves responsibilty, hard work, trust and honor. Rudyard Kipling tells the story marvelously. The story is brilliantly crafted and a pure delight to read. The language of the story gives it the feel of the times and helps illustrate the rough lifestyles involved. This is a grand morality tale of adventure, human nature and the value of real love. I read this as a young teenager, but now (many years later!!) I see what an awesome author Kipling truly was!!!! This is a book to be read again!

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: He was a rich kid. Nobody liked Harvey because he was mean to everyone. He felt sick and fell overboard.

Fishermen saved his life. He learned to fish. He changed his personality. Dan taught him to be a fisherman and a sailor. Long Jack taught him the ropes. Disko taught him how to steer. He caught a dead sailor and Dan showed him how to cut the ropes.

At the end he was Dan's best friend and gained the respect of the crew.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read!
Review: Is The Captain Courageous enough for a Critique? The book "Captains Courageous", written by Rudyard Kipling is the struggle of a young, immature boy learning what it is to be a real man through different hardships and ordeals he encounters. The young boys name is Harvey Cheyne. The book is an adventure story take takes place on the ocean. The struggle that Harvey goes through could be argued that it is similar to Kipling's life in a way. Harvey is a fifteen-year-old boy whose parents are extremely rich. He has a very demanding and strong personality that shows up early in the novel. Harvey is thrown into a situation where he has to learn to become a man so he can survive. In the beginning Harvey falls of his ship into the ocean where he is then rescued by a small New England fishing boat. He demands that the captain returns him to his home with his parents and wealth, but the captain and crew do not listen. If they were to turn around they would lose several hundred dollars. Instead the captain makes a deal with Harvey. He tells him, that they will feed and clothe him if he helps on the ship. Harvey has no other choice so he accepts the deal. When he first begins work he is clumsy and slow at getting it done. He has never really had to do physical work before, so this is all new to him. Harvey works for months on the fishing vessel and some changes finally become apparent. His hands are rough and covered in work calluses, unlike the soft and smooth hands he use to have. He also begins to realize what it is like to be a real man. He has to work not only for himself, but for others as well. He also learns that everyone has to put their best effort into everything they do so everyone benefits. Later in the book Harvey witnesses a death of a Frenchman. While watching the funeral he realizes how important life and death really is. At the end of the story Harvey is returned to his family, but not as an immature boy, but as a strong and stable man with a new look at life. Throughout the novel Harvey goes through different hardships that shape him into a new person. Kipling also went through different events that changed him into a different person. At an early age Kipling was put into a foster home where another family then took him to the South Sea where he was beaten and bullied. He was left with psychological scars and a sense of betrayal. Kipling was taken away from his family where he had no control, just like Harvey when he fell into the ocean and then had to stay on the fishing boat for several months. Kipling was also bullied in a way just like Harvey was. Harvey had to do things he wasn't use to and it wasn't his choice. He had to do this to survive and Kipling had to do things to keep progressing through his life. Kipling was also reunited with his family after some his life changing events took place. Kipling also experienced a death like Harvey, but it was a bit different. Kipling had to experience dealing with the death of his son John. His son was killed in action during World War 1. This death was different then the one Harvey saw, but it still left a huge impact on his life. After facing his childhood events and going through a war and the death of his son, Kipling had many ideas he could use in his writings. The events might not have been good ones from his life, but they stuck with him for his whole life. Throughout the novel Kipling used many descriptive words to help give me the whole idea of what was going on. At times it was like I was there and was experiencing it in first person. Kipling did a good job at keeping me interested throughout the book. He didn't leave the story hanging, or have many slow and boring points in the book. There was always something to keep my interest. I also like how it was easy to understand and I didn't have to analyze everything to make sure I knew what was happening. I like how he seemed to base some of his ideas for this story on his own life. I think in doing this he gave the story extra thought into how it was wrote. I also think because he bases some of it on his own real life experiences he knew how to describe the events in the story better. The book, "Captains Courageous", is a well-written adventure story about boy and how he changes through part of his life. With well describe scenes and a good story line; Kipling keeps the reader interested through the whole book. If you are a person that likes a good adventure story or likes to read about opinions on how some people change throughout their lives then I recommend this book. I think that the story would have been a bit better if at the end the story had continued a bit into Harvey's life once he was back with his family with his new knowledge. Overall, I think that Kipling did a good job with the descriptions and whole idea of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Is The Captain Courageous enough for a Critique?
Review: Is The Captain Courageous enough for a Critique? The book "Captains Courageous", written by Rudyard Kipling is the struggle of a young, immature boy learning what it is to be a real man through different hardships and ordeals he encounters. The young boys name is Harvey Cheyne. The book is an adventure story take takes place on the ocean. The struggle that Harvey goes through could be argued that it is similar to Kipling's life in a way. Harvey is a fifteen-year-old boy whose parents are extremely rich. He has a very demanding and strong personality that shows up early in the novel. Harvey is thrown into a situation where he has to learn to become a man so he can survive. In the beginning Harvey falls of his ship into the ocean where he is then rescued by a small New England fishing boat. He demands that the captain returns him to his home with his parents and wealth, but the captain and crew do not listen. If they were to turn around they would lose several hundred dollars. Instead the captain makes a deal with Harvey. He tells him, that they will feed and clothe him if he helps on the ship. Harvey has no other choice so he accepts the deal. When he first begins work he is clumsy and slow at getting it done. He has never really had to do physical work before, so this is all new to him. Harvey works for months on the fishing vessel and some changes finally become apparent. His hands are rough and covered in work calluses, unlike the soft and smooth hands he use to have. He also begins to realize what it is like to be a real man. He has to work not only for himself, but for others as well. He also learns that everyone has to put their best effort into everything they do so everyone benefits. Later in the book Harvey witnesses a death of a Frenchman. While watching the funeral he realizes how important life and death really is. At the end of the story Harvey is returned to his family, but not as an immature boy, but as a strong and stable man with a new look at life. Throughout the novel Harvey goes through different hardships that shape him into a new person. Kipling also went through different events that changed him into a different person. At an early age Kipling was put into a foster home where another family then took him to the South Sea where he was beaten and bullied. He was left with psychological scars and a sense of betrayal. Kipling was taken away from his family where he had no control, just like Harvey when he fell into the ocean and then had to stay on the fishing boat for several months. Kipling was also bullied in a way just like Harvey was. Harvey had to do things he wasn't use to and it wasn't his choice. He had to do this to survive and Kipling had to do things to keep progressing through his life. Kipling was also reunited with his family after some his life changing events took place. Kipling also experienced a death like Harvey, but it was a bit different. Kipling had to experience dealing with the death of his son John. His son was killed in action during World War 1. This death was different then the one Harvey saw, but it still left a huge impact on his life. After facing his childhood events and going through a war and the death of his son, Kipling had many ideas he could use in his writings. The events might not have been good ones from his life, but they stuck with him for his whole life. Throughout the novel Kipling used many descriptive words to help give me the whole idea of what was going on. At times it was like I was there and was experiencing it in first person. Kipling did a good job at keeping me interested throughout the book. He didn't leave the story hanging, or have many slow and boring points in the book. There was always something to keep my interest. I also like how it was easy to understand and I didn't have to analyze everything to make sure I knew what was happening. I like how he seemed to base some of his ideas for this story on his own life. I think in doing this he gave the story extra thought into how it was wrote. I also think because he bases some of it on his own real life experiences he knew how to describe the events in the story better. The book, "Captains Courageous", is a well-written adventure story about boy and how he changes through part of his life. With well describe scenes and a good story line; Kipling keeps the reader interested through the whole book. If you are a person that likes a good adventure story or likes to read about opinions on how some people change throughout their lives then I recommend this book. I think that the story would have been a bit better if at the end the story had continued a bit into Harvey's life once he was back with his family with his new knowledge. Overall, I think that Kipling did a good job with the descriptions and whole idea of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Moby-Dick lite, but still good
Review: Kipling's "Captains Courageous" wants at various times to be "Moby Dick," "Treasure Island," "Kidnapped," and "Robinson Crusoe," but, burdening itself with flat characters and obtuse morality lessons, it flirts with a greatness that it never quite achieves. This is not to say that the novel isn't worth reading; as a seafaring adventure story, it is an excellent depiction of life and labor on a fishing boat and the dangers that face fishermen, spiced with a plethora of nautical jargon in salty dialects, but it doesn't have much beyond that, although for many readers that would be enough.

To identify the principal hero of the novel is difficult because this is that rare kind of novel in which everybody is a hero. Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled, insouciant fifteen-year-old son of an American multimillionaire, is on a luxury steamliner going to Europe when he falls overboard and is rescued from the waters by a fishing schooner called, appropriately, the "We're Here." The captain is a rusty old salt named Disko Troop who tells the boy that they won't be returning to shore for months and that he'd better work on the boat to earn his keep. Harvey, who is not used to work, naturally protests at first but, sensing the futility of his resistance, quickly changes his attitude and puts his nose to the grindstone.

The schooner's small crew is a tough but benign group of sailors who, despite thinking Harvey's story of being heir to a fabulous fortune is just the product of a vivid imagination, treat him as one of their own, teaching him the ropes and allowing him to participate in their camaraderie, while Troop's son Dan, who is about Harvey's age, becomes his closest confidant regarding the tricks of the trade. Eventually the schooner returns to its home base at Gloucester, Massachussetts, where Harvey is able to contact his parents, at the reunion with whom his father realizes with pride that his son's experience on the schooner has given him a sense of responsibility and that he is now equipped better than ever to become a future business leader of America.

While "Captains Courageous" doesn't have the intrigue of Robert Louis Stevenson or the psychological depth of Melville's nautical masterpiece or even the lush, exotic textures and prodigious scope of Kipling's own later novel "Kim," it maintains a strong narrative drive and has a pleasant simplicity. The object lesson about the importance of self-discipline and the invigorating rewards of honest hard work may be a necessary accompaniment to the story, since there is never any concern that anything bad will happen to Harvey, but taken in the spirit of the adventure it feels like an integral part of the whole.

Rating:
Summary: Odyssey of Maritime Maturity
Review: Swept overboard a luxury liner into the Atlantic, teenage Harvey Cheyne is rescued by a Portuguese fisherman from the We're Here out of Gloucester, Mass. Captain Disko Troop, thinking the youth to be temporarily insane, refuses to believe his story of being a millionaire's son; he actually puts the selfish brat to work, treating him like a glorified cabin boy. Condemned to months aboard a fishing vessel which cruises the waters of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, Harvey embarks on his personal voyage to manhood. Befriended by Troop's decent son, Daniel, Harvey soon learns the ropes--quite literally--proving himself an able and positive addition to the crew by season's end.

Kipling's research along the Boton wharves paid off, as he treats his fans to a fine tale about a youth's coming of age-- complete with accurate details about commercial fishing and sailing at the turn of the century. The relationship focuses first on the boys, but changes in the latter quarter of the novel, as Harvey's parents come to grips with his loss and then sudden reunion. The author contrasts the simple integrity of fishermen vs the acquisitive hostility of the transporation barons.

The plot unfolds amid exhaustive nautical terms; in fact the action is occasionally becalmed in those chapters which offer general sea lore and even chanties. These reservations aside, CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS ranks as a ripping yarn which will hold the interest of most boys, and as Kipling's primary American novel--Yankee by setting and terminology. Although he also wrote THE JUNGLE BOOKS from his Vermont home, this young adult classic was truly inspired by his brief New England sojourn. A fascinating tale of emotional survival and character development on the high seas!

Rating:
Summary: Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
Review: This book shows how life's fortunes can turn quickly from
comfort and predictability to hardship and adversity.
In the instant case, a young man's fortune made that
precipitous turn which tested his character in adversity.
The book teaches important lessons for people of all ages
but especially children. There are many seamans' terms
and the colloquialisms are difficult to discern at times.
The overall thrust of the work is good because it portrays
life at sea which very few of us ever encounter to any
significant extent. As such, this experience enriches us all.
Finally, the work raises some important questions about what we
should teach our children. Should children learn that life
consists only of pure pleasure? I think that a balanced
presentation would provide a series of experiences depicting
both hardship and the triumph of the human spirit over
adversity and unfortunate happenstances.