Pip is an innocent boy and regrets his actions. On Pip's way home from visiting his parents' graves, he ran into a man. But he was not just an average man, he was a convict. The convict told Pip to bring him food and a file or else another man will rip out his heart and liver. Both of these, Pip needed to steal from home. Once home, Pip asks Mrs. Joe and Joe general questions regarding what he experienced earlier. Mrs. Joe tells him that all convicts begin by asking questions. This causes Pip to question his future, "…I felt fearfully sensible of the great convenience that the Hulks were handy for me. I was clearly on my way there. I had begun by asking questions, and I was going to rob Mrs. Joe." Pip is greatly influenced by those around him because he trusts others and will follow their words. Just like how he believed Mrs. Joe's statement that all convicts start by asking questions and how he followed the convicts orders to rob Mrs. Joe. Because of this, Pip is just a naive, innocent boy that will be taken adantage by anyone who feels superior to him. Often times, Pip regrets the actions he does that are influenced by those around him. In the quote, Pip talks about fearing his future of what asking questions and robbing from Mrs. Joe will lead to. He starts to see himself as a convict, just like the one that took advantage of him, because Mrs. Joe manipulates him into thinking he is on his way to becoming one by telling him all convicts start by asking questions. And because he fears the outcome of these events, he regrets what he has and is going to do. He hopes that the actions will not change his future or change him as a person.
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I have to agree in that young Pip is a very impressionable boy who can be influenced very easily. No doubt that it was an easy task to convince Pip to steal provisions from his home, but it is even more significant how he has been affected at his home life. Not only his sister, but all of her acquaintances find it easy and enjoyable to openly mock and guilt Pip whenever they can. "'...enjoying himself with his elders and betters, and improving himself with their conversation, and rolling in the lap of luxury. And what would have been your destination?...You would have been disposed of for so many shillings according to the market price of the article, and Dunstable the butcher would have whipped you under his left arm, and with his right he would have tucked up his frock to get a penknife from out of his waistcoat-pocket, and he would have shed your blood and had your life. No bringing up by hand then. Not a bit of it!' Joe offered me more gravy, which I was afraid to take" (27). Pip is often seen by this group of his sister's peers as an ungrateful little brat who doesn't appreciate how his sister was willing to "bring him up by hand". They openly threaten his life if he were ever to reap anymore of his sister's and their luxuries and Pip is absolutely terrified. As a young vulnerable boy, he can't help but feel guilty into believing that he was only a burden on his sister. He doesn't seem to have the confidence to be able to tell himself that he is more than a parasitic leech upon his sister and her friends.
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