Mr. Pip: Chapter 24 Summary & Analysis

After the “redskin” soldiers left, Matilda and the village were in a daze. Daniel was eventually found crucified in a tree. Matilda woke up that night and wandered in a strong wind, listening to heavy thunder. She wanted to visit Grace’s grave to tell her what had happened to Mr. Watts, but she never made it beyond the river, which was rushing and wild in the vicious storm. Flirting with the idea of allowing the river to end her life, she was suddenly swept up in its current and thrust beneath the surface, at which point she decided—in a reflexive way—that she wanted to live. She found a floating log and clung tightly to it, floating atop the rapids until finally flowing out into the coastal waters, which were calmer. This log was her savior, and so she took to calling it Mr. Jaggers, “the man who had saved Pip’s life.”

After floating on Mr. Jaggers in the rainy night, Matilda came upon Mr. Masoi’s fishing boat. After hoisting her aboard, Mr. Masoi told her to be quiet as he paddled her (along with the entire Masoi family) out to sea. Later that night, Matilda safely awoke on a much bigger boat, which then took her to the Solomon Islands, south of Bougainville. In the Solomons’ capital, a doctor inspected her and asked where her father was.