Ninth Notebook, Saint-Joseph Summary and Analysis

In "Carbonieri's Death," Papillion's friend who helped secret the raft away for the failed escape attempt, Carobnieri, is killed in the washroom while he has his face soaped up. Papillion says that it is a rule of survival to have a knife close at hand at all times, especially at a moment of vulnerability such as in the washroom. In this case, Carbonieri had failed to do that and had died. Papillion goes with those taking Carbonieri's body to be dumped into the ocean. Papillion, knowing that sharks will eat the corpse, has the idea of tying Carbonieri's body to a very heavy rock with a wire so that the sharks perhaps will not get at the body until it sinks. The sharks attack the moment the body is dropped into the water and Papillion notes that...