Conflicts

One of the most important conflicts in the novel is Jessie's internal struggles with the treatment of the slaves which impact his morals because he is unable to do anything about it vs his will for survival and his obedience of the crew and captain which enables him to remain alive, but he is still aprehended by the guitl of helping to handle the slaves. Here is a passage from pg 69 that illustrates the mixed feelings Jessie feels about the slaves and the burdens of moral ineptitude he faces.

"The slaves were all looking at the place where the woman had been thrown overboard. Sick and stooped, half-starved by now, and soiled from the rarely cleaned holds, they stared hopelessly at the empty horizon...I found a dreadful thing in my mind...I hated the slaves! I hated their shuffling, their howling, their very suffering! I hated the way they spat out their food upon the deck, the overflowing buckets, the emptying of which tried all my strength. I hated the foul stench that came from the holds no matter which way the wind blew, as though the ship itself were soaked with human excretment. I would have snatched the rope from Spark's hand and beaten them myself! Oh, God! I wished them all dead! Not to hear them! Not to smell them! Not to know of their existence!..."

This passage is important in illustrating the conflict because this is the perfect example of how Jessie feels empathy for the slaves from the way he notices their half-starved bodies, poor condition and hopelessness, but this passage also hints at the disdain Jessie feels toward the slaves for putting him in a position he does not want to be in, and the fact that he thinks the slaves are the cause of Jessie's own hopelessness. This passage depicts Jessie's misplacement of anger and fear and also illustrates his own bewildered and lost soul.