Prosthetics often play a role in fiction, particularly science fiction, as either plot points or to give a character a beyond normal appearance. Numerous works of literature, television, and films feature characters who have prosthetics attached. Prosthetics are used, in a narrative sense, to either, provide a plot point in the characters back-story, a plot point to give to character a disability (or more often in science fiction, an advantage), or just to distinguish the character in some way. Having a character in a story with a prostheses, can sometimes be the whole point of the story (e.g. Robocop is a full-body cyborg of police officer Alex Murphy, in essence he is a human/robot police officer, which is the basic premise for the film). From the early pages of Treasure Island by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, we are warned to beware the man with one leg, and in Peter Pan the children are terrorised by a pirate with only one hand. Treasure Island is the most popular pirate story ever written in English, featuring one of literature's most beloved “bad guys," Treasure Island has been happily devoured by several generations of boys—and girls—and grownups. Its unforgettable characters include: young Jim Hawkins, who finds himself owner of a map to Treasure Island, where the fabled pirate booty is buried; honest Captain Smollett, heroic Dr. Livesey, and the good-hearted but obtuse Squire Trelawney, who help Jim on his quest for the treasure; the frightening Blind Pew, double-dealing Israel Hands, and seemingly mad Ben Gunn, buccaneers of varying shades of menace; and, of course, garrulous, affable, ambiguous Long John Silver, who is one moment a friendly, laughing, one-legged sea-cook and the next a dangerous pirate leader! The unexpected and complex relationship that develops between Silver and Jim helps transform what seems at first to be a simple, rip-roaring adventure story into a deeply moving study of a boy's growth into manhood, as he learns hard lessons about friendship, loyalty, courage and honor—and the uncertain meaning of good and evil Such injuries were not limited to pirates in reality, buccaneers were no more likely to lose a leg in battle than any other seaman of the time, but due to the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and J.M. Barrie we tend to forget that such primitive prosthetics as a wooden leg or hook might be found on any law abiding citizen as well. Wooden legs are perhaps the most interesting of these prosthetics, for their origin in myth is more obscure than their true history. Contrary to popular belief Long John Silver did not have a wooden leg, he hobbled along on one leg and a crutch, the idea of a false leg perhaps came from that other great fictional seafarer Captain Ahab of Melville's Moby Dick. However, the use of wooden legs by historical pirates is well documented. The sixteenth century French buccaneer Francois le Clerc was nicknamed "Jambe de Bois" because of his wooden leg, and the life of Captain England in Captain Johnson's General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pirates contains the following passage. "Makra did what he could to soften this beast, and plied him with warm punch; notwithstanding which they were in a tumult whether they should make an end of him, or no, when an accident happened which turned to the favour of the poor captain: a fellow with a terrible pair of whiskers, and a wooden leg, being stuck round with pistols, like the man in the almanac with darts, comes swearing and vapouring upon the quarter-deck, and asks, in a damning manner, which was Captain Makra."
