Quick Self-Test, Practice Q&A, and Reference Tags
Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate | Prerequisites: Parts 1 and 2 of these study notes.
Thirty seconds. Five questions. Check your basics before moving to the full practice Q&A.
Q1. True or false: Ebenezer Balfour is David's father's older brother.
A: False. Ebenezer is the younger brother. Alexander (David's father) was the older brother and rightful heir.
Q2. Fill in the blank: Alan gives David a ______ from his coat as a symbol of friendship.
A: A silver button.
Q3. True or false: David is stranded on Earraid because the island has no connection to Mull.
A: False. At low tide, the water is shallow enough to wade across. David simply does not know this.
Q4. Fill in the blank: Colin Campbell is also known as "the ______."
A: The Red Fox.
Q5. True or false: At the end of the novel, David takes full ownership of the House of Shaws and moves in.
A: False. David is recognised as the rightful owner, but Ebenezer is allowed to stay at Shaws during his lifetime and pays David an annual income.
Q: Why does Ebenezer want to get rid of David?
A: David is the son of Alexander, Ebenezer's older brother and the rightful owner of the House of Shaws. Ebenezer has been living in the house since Alexander gave it up, and David's arrival threatens his claim. Ebenezer first tries to kill David (the staircase) and then pays Captain Hoseason to kidnap him.
Q: What does David learn from the innkeeper at Queensferry, and why is it significant?
A: He learns that his father Alexander was the older brother, not the younger. This means the House of Shaws rightfully belongs to David, not Ebenezer. It also explains why Ebenezer is so afraid of David and so desperate to remove him.
Q: How does David meet Alan Breck Stewart?
A: While sailing off the north coast of Scotland in heavy fog, the ship strikes and sinks a small boat. Alan is the only survivor, pulling himself aboard. He is brought to the round-house, where he reveals he is a Jacobite Highlander carrying gold for exiled clansmen.
Q: Why does David choose to warn Alan about the murder plot instead of helping the crew?
A: David sees Alan eating his supper and makes a moral judgement. He decides he cannot be party to theft and murder. This moment marks David's first independent moral decision and the beginning of his friendship with Alan.
Q: What is the significance of the silver button Alan gives David?
A: The button comes from Alan's coat and bears the mark of his father, Duncan Stewart. It is a token of clan brotherhood. Wherever David shows it, friends of the Stewarts will help him. Symbolically, it represents loyalty crossing the Highland-Lowland divide.
Q: How does David escape from Earraid?
A: Boatmen from Iona try to tell him in Gaelic that the water between Earraid and Mull is shallow at low tide. David eventually understands the word "tide" and realises he can wade across. The episode illustrates both his ignorance of Highland life and his ability to learn.
Q: Describe the Appin Murder and explain its importance to the plot.
A: Colin Campbell, a government agent sent to evict the Stewarts from their land, is shot dead while David is speaking to him on the road. David chases the killer and is accused by Campbell's companions of being an accomplice. This event transforms David from a traveller into a fugitive, binding him to Alan for the rest of the novel.
Q: Why does James Stewart say he must accuse Alan and David of the murder?
A: James has a family to protect. If the Campbells and the English soldiers search his house and find evidence of his connection to Alan, his family will suffer. By publicly accusing Alan and David, James deflects suspicion from himself. It is a painful but pragmatic decision.
Q: What causes the quarrel between David and Alan in Chapter 4?
A: The immediate cause is Alan gambling away all their money while David is sick with fever at Cluny Macpherson's cave. But the deeper causes are weeks of exhaustion, illness, cultural friction, and the pressure of being hunted. David eventually insults Alan's courage, and Alan draws his sword but cannot bring himself to fight a sick boy.
Q: How is the quarrel resolved, and what does the resolution reveal about the friendship?
A: David collapses and asks Alan to forgive him. Alan, nearly in tears, says he did not realise how ill David was. He carries David to safety and nurses him for a month. The resolution shows that their friendship is stronger than pride or cultural difference. Alan's refusal to fight David is the novel's clearest expression of genuine love between the two.
Q: Explain how David tricks Ebenezer into confessing at the end of the novel.
A: Alan pretends to be a Highlander who found David after the shipwreck. He tells Ebenezer his "friends" are holding David and asks whether Ebenezer wants the boy killed or kept, and how much he paid to have him kidnapped. Ebenezer, panicking, admits he paid Hoseason 20 pounds. Mr Rankeillor and his secretary Torrance, hiding nearby, hear everything.
Q: What is the significance of the farewell scene at Corstorphine Hill?
A: It is the emotional climax. David and Alan have survived everything together, and now they must part. Alan will hide until he can escape to France. David walks towards Edinburgh, towards his inheritance and adult life. He does not look back, but wants to sit down and cry. The scene shows that their friendship, formed across every division in Scottish society, has become the most important thing in David's life.
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson, RLS, Oxford Bookworms, Oxford Bookworms Library, Stage 3, Level 3, graded reader, 1000 headwords, Clare West retelling, David Balfour, Alan Breck, Alan Breck Stewart, Ebenezer Balfour, House of Shaws, Captain Hoseason, brig Covenant, Mr Riach, Mr Shuan, Ransome, round-house, round-house battle, silver button, Jacobite, Jacobite rising, the Forty-Five, 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Culloden, Highland, Highlander, Lowland, Lowlander, Scottish clans, clan system, Stewart clan, Campbell clan, Colin Campbell, Red Fox, Appin Murder, James Stewart, James of the Glens, Cluny Macpherson, Mr Rankeillor, Torrance, Essendean, Cramond, Queensferry, Edinburgh, Earraid, Mull, Torosay, Lochaline, Kingairloch, Loch Linnhe, Appin, Glencoe, Iona, Corstorphine Hill, Firth of Forth, River Forth, Limekilns, historical fiction, adventure novel, coming of age, Bildungsroman, first-person narration, first-person narrator, inheritance, betrayal, kidnapping, slavery, friendship, loyalty, appearance vs reality, symbolism, foreshadowing, Scottish history, 18th century Scotland, post-Culloden, Highland Clearances, Catriona, David Balfour sequel, Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson works, dominie, plaid, Gaelic