An In-depth Character Analysis of Jim Hawkins

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I am in no way associated or employed by Disney Studios or any sub-department thereof. These are simply observations and deconstructions of an existing character.

There is a common misconception amongst fans that Jim is "emo" or "angsty". These are incorrect as they imply he is overly depressed about a situation that is otherwise mundane in others' eyes. This is not the case. Jim is, on the scale of emotions, more angry and frustrated than he is sad or depressed. When we first meet the present day Jim in the film, keep in mind that he is fifteen years old. Fifteen year olds tend to be impulsive with their actions, acting on their emotions rather than common sense.

Jim is introduced to us as a spirited juvenile delinquent; his dialogue with Sarah lets us know that he's had a lot of trouble with the Benbow police on more than one occasion. He's probably already been to juvenile hall as he's on "probation" according to the officers that brought him as well as the throw-away line that Jim knows the police law numbers better than the officer. He's had enough problems in the recent years that even Sarah's regulars give him looks as he's brought in (Mrs. Dunwoody isn't even fazed by the whole thing). The entire scene shows Jim as an apathetic smart-allack. However, just as quickly as we're shown a small look at his cockiness, Jim almost instantly starts helping his mother clean her restaurant. It's not so he can be a "good boy", but more out of guilt. He knows what he's doing and he knows the lecture he's about to get from his mother. The way he talks about the situation ("It was no big deal") gives some insight to the fact that Jim takes this mother-son relationship for granted; it's fairly obvious by looking around the setting that they're all they have. Why would his mother do anything to him that would jeopardize her relationship with him? It's fairly obvious to viewers that he takes a lot of things for granted: his living situation, his relationship with his mother, his intelligence. All things that, as of this time in the movie, are in no great threat until a few minutes later when we're shown that his mother's had it with him. We're told through dialogue between Sarah and Delbert later that Jim's incredibly smart, but simply stopped putting forth the effort into showing it. It's very obvious to the viewer that almost everyone in Benbow is familiar with his behavior and has stopped caring about the repurcussions Jim gets for it. Even to the point that their closest family friend considers him a felon. If all these people have given up on him. why should Jim go through the trouble of proving them wrong? There's no one in the town that has any expectations of him, so he has no challenge for himself to become a better person. They've already made up their mind about who he is so he sees no real point in trying to make them think otherwise. Sarah also gives us a timeline for when this started: when Jim's father, Leland, walked out. It becomes clear to the audience that that event had probably the most prominent effect on Jim's life, leaving him this angry, cynical boy to grow up even more jaded. Jim overhears this conversation, so he knows he's at his last chances with his mother and that something has to change. Probably himself, as much as he doesn't like to admit it.

Jim is the epitome of a deadpan snarker. He uses it as a defense mechanism when he's unsure of himself or a situation he's gotten himself into. Because his father left him at such a young age, Jim had no one to advise him on "picking his battles" or knowing when to leave things alone. This inability to judge situations, alongside his cockiness and his snark, makes Jim a constant trouble-maker without meaning to be. Jim doesn't go out looking for trouble, he just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time a lot of times. His need to snark as a defense is what usually lands him in the most trouble; at age fifteen, it's probably something he knows by now but can't break the habit.

He's also a thrill-seeker or adrenaline junky. His escapades with his solar surfer are enough to showcase this, along with his confidence; why else would he plunge off a steep cliff with his sail closed if he's not confident in his experience? He knows what he's doing and it's what he loves. The beginning "12 Years Later" sequence is the only time we see him enjoying himself until his later montage sequence with Silver. But, again, he's not out to look for trouble. It just happens sometimes that his excursions take him through expected restricted areas. When he's doing something he loves, he gets caught up in the moment and loses sight of what's actually around him. Call it tunnel vision. Yes, he sees the restricted sign but sees it more as a challenge than what it actually means; were he not in the middle of an adrenaline rush, he probably would have taken it as a warning instead.

All of this leads to him overhearing his mother's conversation with Delbert, saying she's at the end of her rope with him. Cue well-timed ship crash outside their inn. With this, we're also shown that Jim can be just as sympathetic as anyone else to someone in need. He goes to make sure the pilot inside is safe and okay and doesn't miss a beat to offer him help to their inn, going so far as to support his weight. For someone shown to be as apathetic as he is, Jim is surprisingly caring to those in need. Within the next few hours, Jim's shown to be quick on his feet (running and not hesitating to jump out a burning window to escape danger) to being intuitive (figuring out how to work the map with no prior knowledge) and getting excited (TREASURE!!11!). Let's look at that last one. Up until this point, Jim's been shown to be nothing but angry, apathetic, and a bit selfish in all of his actions. He's never taken the thought or the time to consult anyone on his actions; he merely decided he wanted to do something and did it regardless of consequences or how they would affect others around him. But all of his emotions are shown to be on the more negative end of the emotional spectrum. Nothing positive comes from his actions or attitudes. So the fact that this is the first thing he gets genuinely happy about shows just how much this idea means to him. The idea of Treasure Planet, that he's believed in and held onto as a real thing since his early childhood, being proven to be a real place before his eyes through chance is probably the most important thing that's happened to him since his father's leaving. So much so, that his attitude completely changes towards how he handles his wants and needs. He takes this idea of treasure hunting as a last ditch effort to do something for his mother. To prove he can do something right and thought out and not screw it up. Even bigger than that realization is that he asks her. Knowing he's on his last chance with Sarah, he knows he needs to do it Right. So he asks her to let him do this for her. This is a profound moment from his normally selfish nature to take into consideration his actions and their effect on his mother's life. Before the incident, he might have simply rushed off to do it on his own anyway. But in a sense, this action may still be viewed as selfish as he still needs a place to return home to and a mother he doesn't want to see wash her hands of him.

After this, we're treated to seeing Jim interact with an entirely new set of characters, characters he's never met before, characters he doesn't have any prior experience with. Characters he has no idea how to act around because they have no previous knowledge of him or his actions. Which leads to the undeniable fact that Jim is socially inept. Jim has no idea how to handle social situations that aren't focused on how he's messed up. Normal conversation is awkward and beyond him to an extent, so he spends the majority of his time arriving on the boat nervous and silent. He lets Delbert do almost all of the talking. He examines and takes in the surroundings and the crewmates, almost under the impression that he won't have to interact with them. Which is why it's such a shock to him when Amelia tells him he'll be part of the crew as well. He's being forced into a position to be social with someone he's never met when he had expectations to the contrary. This is also a first for Jim: he's being put in a position to work rather than being left to roam free at his discretion. He's never been given guidelines (that we're aware of) so suddenly being put into a place where he'll have to answer to someone besides his mother is a bit of a surprise to him.

Once in the galley, we're shown again just how little experience Jim has with social interaction. He stays quiet, he examines his surroundings and has no idea what to actually say to this cook until he sees something familiar and clings to it for conversation: the fact that Silver is a cyborg. And rather than approach the topic with subtlety and finesse, he goes straight to the point and is unable to hide his strong suspicion from Silver. Had he more experience with socializing, he could have made his intentions more well hidden during this scene. He has every right to be skeptical of Silver's character, but his inexperience in handling such situations gives his suspicion away from his first interaction, a mistake that comes back to haunt him later in the film. This is also an unfortunate example (and foreshadowing) of his habit of "poking the fire" so to speak. Because of his inexperience, Jim doesn't know how to go into situations that could be potentially dangerous that he's not in complete control of.

He does, however, become less suspicious once Silver gives him some freedom to explore the ship. He doesn't watch the crew much; if you pay attention, he's watching more intently on the ship itself and its mechanisms than the crew. Jim is wholly more interested in how the ship works than he is the crew running it, again showing his social ineptitude when it comes to people. Basically, that mechanics > social interaction. His inability to take his situations seriously becomes apparent during his confrontation with newly met Mr. Scroop. The Spider is obviously larger and more dangerous than himself, yet Jim is insistant on spurring Scroop on. It's not until it's obvious he's in over his head and is about to be seriously injured that Jim realizes he's stepped too far. This, again, is also in part to Jim's inexperience with social interaction, as well as his lack of guidance from any kind of mentor figure. When Silver begins to berate him on his actions, Jim immediately shifts the blame and ignores his own fault in the situation. Again, this is because Jim is selfish; selfish people rarely see their own fault when things go wrong in their lives.

However, in keeping true to his motive of wanting to change things for himself, Jim does do the job Silver gives him. When Silver comes back, we're given one last section of Jim's social ineptitude: he doesn't know how to have a positive conversation about anything pertaining to himself, especially when thanking someone. He's probably never sincerely thanked anyone for anything in years up to this point. This conversation helps lead to the fact that Jim doesn't trust others. He trusts Silver enough to tell him about his father leaving, a fact that cannot be changed and he can feign detachment from. But once the topic is taken to Jim's feelings on the matter, Jim instantly covers it up and is closed off again. Jim is not a character that is comfortable with his own feelings, let alone sharing them with others. Jim is not someone who can easily put his trust in others; he was hurt badly when he was younger by the person he trusted the most, so why should he trust anyone else when they'll likely do the same? He's only ever shown his emotions through actions and snark, but never simply voicing them. He keeps his feelings inside and hidden and never acknowledges they're there.

During the montage, we're shown Jim as he continues taking on tasks given to him by Silver (though his enthusasiasm for them is lacking) and getting to know the crew a bit more until he's comfortable enough to be more of himself around them. We can see him growing closer to Silver enough so that he openly displays in his facial expression that he doesn't want to be left behind when Silver first ducks out of view on the longboat. Jim is a character that requires a lot of time and consistently positive interaction with someone before he can allow himself to start trusting them. But here's another thing we're shown about Jim: he's curious. Jim is a character that is genuinely curious about everything in his world. He wants to see how things work and how they can be applied to what he needs at any moment. And this is shown especially true when Silver shows him how to pilot the longboat.

At this point in the movie, Jim's gained confidence. He's gained someone's trust (fake or not) and he's been successfully completing every task given to him. He hasn't made any large mistakes and hasn't been negatively judged for any he might have made (that we aren't shown, but it can be assumed he's made some simple new-crew-member mistakes, honestly). He takes on new challenges without any hesitation and he does it with gusto. Securing lifelines? Piece of cake for him now that he knows he can do it right.

And that is why he ultimately falls so hard when the blame rests on him for Arrow's death. It hits him harder than it normally would because it hit Jim when his confidence was at its highest. He'd gone all this time without making a mistake and now this mistake has cost someone their life. This is, however, another moment to point out Jim's selfishness. There's the possibility that he feels grief for Arrow's death, yes. But what we're shown is his focus and attention on how this was his fault. His dialogue in this scene shows off an immature way of focusing someone else's misfortune into his own problem. Rather than express grief that Arrow's gone because of him, Jim's entire monologue is about how he's screwed up yet again and how this only affects his own life. Not once in any of these scenes (or the entire movie) does he express any remorse for Mr. Arrow. All he can think about is how this is His Problem. So that explains why he's so obviously moved by Silver's speech: Silver didn't reproach him for being selfish and he didn't give Jim a reality check on the situation. (Though his motives in doing so might be questionable, but all the same.) All this does is reinforce Jim's trust in Silver even more.

Some ungiven time later, we're shown a rare look at Jim: being a legitimate fifteen year old kid. He's been given affirmation of his feelings and shortcomings, he's not been judged for his mistake. The mentor he's looking up to so much has had nothing but positive feedback for him and he knows things will be okay. His scene chasing and playing with Morph is the most we get to see of Jim acting his age and it's shortlived as he shortly finds out the truth of Silver's motives.

After it's revealed that Mr. Scroop caused Arrows death and that Silver had been faking the mentorship with Jim, Jim goes through a quick series of emotions: surprise/shock, disbelief, hurt, betrayal, disbelief once again. One of the better things about Jim is that he can quickly examine a situation and prioritize -- while he may be hurt by the mess, he also knows that hey, there's an entire crew of pirates here and he needs to tell the Captain. So when he's momentarily confronted by Silver while he's trying to compartmentalize his emotions, Jim covers it up in his usual manner: with anger. In the galley confrontation, Jim showcases not only his anger at Silver's betrayal, but also his resourcefulness and quick thinking. The boy grabs a perp skinner and makes it into a makeshift knive with no hesitation or second thought and books it out of there.

The most we see of Jim after this is him running alongside the small group left against the mutineers and keeping his head together and keeping hold of the map. He's given a task and he intends to see it through, even if it means possibly missing the boat entirely on the way out.

When we get another breather scene, Jim's attitude has changed again. He's venting frustrations at Morph and has resumed being curt and courteous to Amelia; had his trust not been violated so badly, he might have been a bit more familiar with her, given their current situation. He's resumed his ideal of keeping everyone at a distance. He's given another task and he goes on to fulfill it where he meets B.E.N. Jim goes through this scene being frustrated until he discovers he can utilize B.E.N. for his own needs of accomplishing his task and finding safety. It's only after the robot tells him there's a place to stay that he becomes friendlier. This is not to say, however, that Jim is eager at the idea of having a new friend. In fact, he seems vehemently against having another friend (not wanting any kind of physical contact, not wanting idle conversation). Part of this could be chalked up to, "Hey, there are pirates here, shut the crap up," but it's also in part due to that Jim really doesn't want to risk being close to someone again.

If you notice from the time they crash land on the planet til Jim finds the "back door", he doesn't say a single word to Doppler. Doppler, throughout this journey, is the only character that knows Jim from before they stepped foot on the ship and is the only person there considered a family friend. He knows Jim's history and that makes him a familiar constant in Jim's life. So when all of this happens, why wouldn't Jim reach out to him? Besides the fact that Delbert's pretty socially awkward himself, Jim's also really afraid. He put all his trust into one person that was playing him for a tool the entire time and he doesn't want to risk Delbert mocking or reprimanding him for being stupid. Jim only speaks directly to Doppler when he sees an opportunity to make up for his mistake of losing the map.

During his second confrontation with Silver, Jim, for a third time, displays his inability to handle situations with subtlety. He bypasses any chance of negotiation in favor of his selfishness. Rather than take the time and try to negotiate, he'd rather prove a point and wear his anger openly towards Silver, effectively putting himself and his group into a stalemate. The situation could have been handled with more finesse, but Jim's short-sightedness and his need to prove himself right ultimately backed him into a corner he never had to be in. However, this is also in part to his inability to trust Silver again, something that definitely earns some merit. It isn't until after this confrontation that Jim realizes the unfortunate situation that his group is in now. And here, he finds another opportunity to prove himself. Returning to his old ways, Jim took off without consulting anyone, not even sure if this would be safe or would work. He does show his resourceful side in taking the unmanned longboat up to the ship proper and immediately goes for the map to secure it -- it's his most recent mistake that's caused them so much trouble, so it's natural that's what he would try to fix first. His priorities shift to self-preservation once Mr. Scroop is on the case; Jim already knows he can't win after going against him once. He learns his lessons on case-by-case bases. When it comes to Mr. Scroop, Jim knows when to cut his losses. He panics, he runs, he makes use of his surroundings. It all leads to Scroop's Karmic Death by floating through space, not unlike the ending he gave for Arrow not long ago. What is often overlooked here is that Jim had no hesitation in doing this. Shoving the Spider up like this, Jim knew what the result would be and didn't think twice on it. There could be a lot of reasons for this -- (1) In Jim's mind, he's already 'killed' one person (Arrow. Jim never discovered what really happened, so there's still the posibility that Jim might have caused it in the end with only mild tampering by Scroop. Jim doesn't know otherwise), so what would one more be? (2) It could also be justice in his mind. Scroop is a part of this mutiny that's threatened him and his group, and Scroop had some hand in Arrow's death that Jim got the ultimate (self)blame for. (3) Or it could just be the spur of the moment adrenaline and he didn't think about what he was doing. Or maybe it's all three of these reasons. Either way, the result is still the same.

After that, Jim has another argument with Silver, though for the first time, it happens in front of Silver's crew. Jim's treated to Silver's true colors directly (as opposed to observing). And, in the end, Jim's selfish nature gets them out of the mess it got them into when Jim insists that he comes with the pirates to find the treasure. He's not doing it for Delbert and Amelia and certainly not because it's the right thing to do. He's doing it because he wants to see the treasure himself. He specifically states, "If you want the map, then you're taking me too." In no way does this imply or insinuate he wants to help his group. Silver just happened to take them along anyway, just their luck. When they reach the cliff, Jim's on more familiar grounds with the pirates. This is most likely because they're all after a common goal and they can help him achieve it.

Once they acquire the treasure, Jim's thoughts are actually pretty smart. He knows he'll need a way to carry as much treasure as he can without loading himself down. So the best thing to do is load up a ship. And why not use a ship that's already conveniently placed there piled in treasure already? The tension gets drawn out once the countdown starts and B.E.N. brings Jim up to speed (which was wholly unneeded, it was obvious what was going on) so Jim's focus is doubled on getting Flint's ship ready to depart. Jim has one final confrontation with Silver where he musters up enough bravery to stand his ground with a weapon rather than throw words at him. He does, however, look legitimately scared. Jim is ultimately scared of this would-be mentor that's broken his trust time and time again throughout the film. And at this point, Jim knows Silver wouldn't think twice about killing him because Silver's just as selfish as he is. His opinion changes once his life is in danger; self-preservation wins over personal feelings once again when Silver's offering his hand to rescue him. It's not out of renewed faith or trust, but simply Jim wants to live and Silver's the only way he can at that moment, so of course he'll take it. Once it's obvious that Silver's not going to simply knock Jim into the abyss himself, Jim's on mildly good terms with him again, especially knowing Silver ignored his selfish needs and gave up probably the largest amount of treasure anyone would have gotten out of there in order to save him. The familiarity continues on through the rest of the film, partly because Silver proved himself once and for all and partly out of necessity. Everyone left on the ship is trying to survive the planet's destruction and Jim sees one more opportunity to make up for all of his mistakes leading up to this conclusion. Silver offers assistance and Jim offers a little bit of his trust back.

Once the portal is fixed and the crew and ship have escaped death, Jim's eyemask is removed and Jim has finally, genuinely proven his worth to both the crew and himself. He ultimately comes out the better for it all: Amelia's given her approval of his tactics and is offering a solid future, Delbert didn't criticize his actions and was more thrilled to see the boy do it, he ended up making a friend with B.E.N. in the end. And through all of this, Jim's gotten his confidence back. During his final conversation with Silver, Jim displays this confidence and the newfound ability to articulate his feelings to Silver, talking about how Silver's touched his life during the trip and his forgiveness of the cook for everything he did -- something he couldn't do for his own father walking out on them. This is, by far, possibly the most important part of Jim's relationship with Silver: being able to forgive this new father-figure where he couldn't forgive his birth father. This is not something Jim mid-movie any earlier could have been able to do.