hat’s why he jumped. It was a part of himself that he feared to acknowledge”(Haugh 62). “Jim does not choose to jump; he is a vessel that is filled with what happens to him until experience overflows and spills out, and the squall within him and the sea outside him become the same”(Ash 158). The thought of leaving eight hundred pilgrims to die greatly effected Jim. Upon jumping off the boat Jim’s entire life and future plans are influenced by the guilt that can’t be forgotten. All events associated with the Patna directly impact every aspect of the book(Ash 153). After jumping Jim hears voices of the pilgrims that torment him until later when he finds out that the Patna made it to shore and all of the pilgrims survived. Jim refuses to associate himself with the other officers. He first denies his guilt and claims the others were guilt stricken. While in denial Jim thinks about swimming back to the ship and warning the pilgrims. He then thinks it over and starts to wish that the Patna will sink and all of the pilgrims will die. Jim tells the other officers in the Patna that they are the guilty ones and he didn’t desert the ship. He claims that the officers made him jump. The officers tell Jim that he is “one of them” and is just as guilty as they are. Jim then thinks of himself as one of the other officers and feelings of self-betrayal come over him (haugh 62). Robert Kuehn states that “ The actions happen so inevitably that it is hard to blame Jim”(Kuehn 38). The blame put on Jim shouldn’t be as much as the other officers because it did happen quickly and Jim wasn’t leading the abandoning of the ship. Jim was merely a follower that didn’t belong with the others. Although Jim is unable to account for his jump from the Patna he denies the fact that he felt fear (Saveson 102). Jim confronts his guilt when being put on trial for abandonmen...
