The Innocence of Joe

First a little information on my innocent Joe character. Joe Gargary is the father figure to Pip in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. He married Pip's sister, Mrs. Gargary, and when Pip's parents died he brought Pip into the household. Contrary to Mrs. Gargary, who for lack of a better term, abuses Pip and makes sure his life is miserable (even though he is her brother), Joe is warm and friendly to Pip. He not only looks out for Pip but he also supports and encourages Pip's development. For example, when at the holiday dinner while Mrs. Gargary and Uncle Pumblechook are berating Pip, Joe calmly spoons Pip spoon after spoon of gravy.
Joe is also the village blacksmith. His trade and his connection to Pip's humble beginnings make him a very important character for the development of Pip's personna and a strong contrast to the theme that Dickens develops (to be discussed in the synthesis post). When Pip runs into "his convict" in the marshes, the main reason he is spaired is so that he can return home and recover a file- one of Joe's tools- necessary to removing his shakel. This is extremely important since Able Magwitch, the convict, will become the reason that Pip has the chance to become a gentleman. Equally important is the contrast that Joe provides to the other characters in the story. Miss Havisham, Estella, Mr. Jaggers, and Uncle Pumblechook are all characters that are rotten. They are corrupted by wealth and social class which has destroyed their humanity for others. Miss Havisham is extremely wealthy and heartbroken, thus she raises Estella to be cold and manipulative as to wreck revenge on innocent men, Mr. Jaggers makes his living as a criminal lawyer while manipulating the people in his life with sheer force, Uncle Pumblechook is abusive of Pip until he comes into his "expectations", which he fully exploits (earlier after Pip is paid for attending to Miss Havisham, Pumblechook takes the Gargary family out to dinner with the money Pip was paid). Among all of these people, is our innocent Joe. He is oblivious of the wretchedness of these other people in his life and one of the only true characters within the whole novel. There are two very important instances that make this true. The first is when Pip is just a boy. Joe becomes Pip's only friend and they develop a special bond. While they eat their afternoon meal of bread and butter, the two after each bite put up the bread and compare bites with the other. A little ritual that builds their bond and eventually cares over into the forge when Pip becomes Joe's apprentice and they spend long hours staring into the hot coals together. The second instance is when Mr. Jaggers comes and informs Joe that Pip is to become a gentleman. In this moment, Joe is losing an apprentice and his one true friend he has had in life. Mr. Jaggers understands this and offers to pay him a compensation. What does Joe do? He accepts nothing. He lets Pip go. Asking for nothing in return, Joe allows Pip to move on and better himself. What does Pip do? He goes with Mr. Jaggers to become a gentleman and in the process he losses respect for Joe. He sees him as common and even asks Biddy (another orphan who Pip spent time educating himself with) to better Joe's manners. This was even beginning to happen before Pip was madea gentleman. After meeting Estella, he felt ashamed of his "common" background and his "rough hands and working boots". From then on he felt ashamed of himself. Joe on the otherhand, he has pride in his innocence he even says "if you can't get to being oncommon through going straight, you'll never get through it going crooked". He has pride in the work he does, the life he lives, and who he is. For some reason Pip can't understand that, and he will not understand until the very end of the book when he realizes that wealth only corrupts goodness and that the only truly good people he has ever meet in his life have not been wealthy lawyers or estate holders, but a convict, a blacksmith, and an orphan.