As the boat drew near the whale, Pip was seized with terror. Without meaning to, he threw himself into the sea.
A First Warning
Stubb stopped the boat and hauled Pip out. But there was no tenderness in his voice.
He warned that if this happened again, he wouldn’t stop the boat for him. He added, without hesitation, that one whale was worth more than Pip was.
A Second Time, and Then
On the next chase, gripped by the same fear, Pip leapt into the sea again. This time his foot even caught in the line, dragging his body along with it.
Stubb kept his word exactly. He did not stop the boat, but pressed on after the whale.
Alone on the Sea
Pip was left alone in the middle of an endless sea. Wherever he looked, there was nothing but sky and water.
He drifted for hours inside that vastness. He couldn’t even tell if any ship would come looking for him.
What Had Drowned
“The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul.”
At last the Pequod found him and hauled him aboard. His body had come back safe, but the crew watching him soon realized he was not the same person as before.
Become Someone Else
Pip was no longer cheerful the way he used to be. His words sometimes didn’t hang together, and his eyes seemed fixed on something far away.
The crew found him strange, but Ishmael thought otherwise. What that vast sea had shown him wasn’t something anyone who hadn’t lived through it could judge lightly.