Jim Hawkins Character Analysis

As the white owner of a Southern plantation around the 1930s, Mr. Hawkins is the employer of many Black field workers, including the Saunders family (Dave, Bob, Mrs. Saunders, and Dave’s younger brother). Notably, even after Dave buys the gun that he believes will prove himself as a man, he remains deferential to Mr. Hawkins. When Mr. Hawkins catches Dave sneaking out in the early morning to test out the gun, he asks Dave to go plow down by the woods, and Dave plows two whole rows before taking the gun out. Dave’s compliance is rooted in more than just the fact that Mr. Hawkins pays his salary; Dave is also afraid of what his own father will do if he finds out Dave isn’t getting along well with Mr. Hawkins. When Mr. Hawkins discovers that his mule Jenny has been killed and that Dave is the culprit, he doesn’t react with physical violence the way Dave’s father might. In fact, Mr. Hawkins seems to handle the situation genially, telling Bob Saunders not to worry and laughing about how Dave bought himself a dead mule. He offers to accept two dollars a month from Dave until Dave has paid for the value of the mule (which Mr. Hawkins sets at 50 dollars). While the public mockery that comes after “buying” the dead mule brings Dave to tears, Dave still leaves the situation believing he’s gotten off easy. It is only later, as he thinks back, that he realizes what a heavy burden his debt to Mr. Hawkins will be. Dave briefly considers firing a bullet at Mr. Hawkins’ house to scare him (having realized earlier in the story that a gun can shoot anyone, “black or white”), but by then, his gun is out of bullets and so he runs away without ever directly confronting Mr. Hawkins. Like Bob Saunders, Jim Hawkins also does not change over the course of the story. He remains a persistent figure of white, male authority who sits atop an economic system that gives him almost total control over his Black employees.