Role of Ben Gunn

Ben's role is one of a "helper". He been marooned on the island for three years. He knows the lay of the land, he's been reformed of his pirate ways, and thus, provided Jim and the others with exptensive help that no one else could.....

Stevenson's decription:

"His skin, wherever it was exposed, was burnt by the sun; even his lips were black; and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar-men that I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He His skin, wherever it was exposed, was burnt by the sun; even his lips were black; and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar-men that I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters of old ships' canvas and old sea cloth; and this extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a system of of the most various and incongruous fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin. All around his waist he wore an old brass- buckled leather belt which was the one thing solid in his whole accoutrement."

Note, this description is one of a man who has been left alone for a very long time. He's suffered exposure and his supplies, clothing, and coverings are makeshift..... he's had to utilize whatever he could. He's been living off the land.