The themes of need, insecurity, abuse, secrecy, good and bad, cowardice, and guilt show up in Pip’s interactions with Joe. Pip loves Joe very much, mostly because Joe lets him love him. Joe is about the only good thing in Pip’s life, and at the age of seven, Pip cannot afford to lose the love of the only gentle adult around him. Therefore Pip says nothing about the food and the file he stole. Pip suffers a lot of guilt, but he prefers secrecy, emotional distance, and sacrificing the truth to losing love. Pip, the older narrator, judged himself by admitting he was a coward. These themes recur throughout the book.
There is some additional foreshadowing of the convict’s later gratitude to Pip. The convict, noticing Pip’s silence in front of the authorities, tells the sergeant that it was he who stole food from Joe’s house. This essentially frees Pip from any blame when the missing food is discovered. The convict respects Pip’s silence and help and honorably gets Pip off the hook.
Another theme in these chapters is the injustice of social classes. Pip’s convict is willing to forfeit his freedom to bring the other one back. There is mention of the second convict getting easier treatment because he is a gentleman. It is obvious there is a history between these two, and their fight foreshadows darker conflicts to come between them.
