Summary and Analysis
Part III Chapter 13: Missing at Sea
Summary
The next morning, May 28, the Green Hornet is declared missing. On the rafts, Louie opens the rations to distribute the morning chocolate. It is gone. Mac, in a panic during the night, had eaten it all. The loss of their only food is devastating, but the men still hope for rescue. During the day, two search planes fly overhead, but the survivors are unable to get either crew’s attention. On the fifth day, Mac snaps and screams of death until Louie slaps him. They continue to drift on the ocean. News of Louie’s disappearance reaches his family and friends back home. The world thinks him dead, but his mother, Louise, refuses to believe it.
Analysis
The first event of Louie’s ocean “purgatory” is deprivation at the hands of someone who should have been his ally. Mac’s greedy, panicked consumption of all the nutritional chocolate is a betrayal of the highest order, yet there’s nothing to be done about it. Louie can only suffer the loss and hope for rescue.
The second event of Louie’s “purgatory” while in the Pacific is the appearance of not one, but two potential saviors in the sky. Twice Louie and the others spot American warplanes overhead, one so close that Louie thinks he recognizes the insignia on the plane’s tail. But neither plane spots the three men; Louie, Phil, and Mac are left to drift.