How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In three days they had not caught a single fish. Their families would go hungry. Manjiro swallowed hard when he thought of the empty rice bin at home. (1.1.4)
This is going to be a recurring thing—the whole connection between his family back home and food (or lack thereof).
Quote #2
He had hoped this fishing trip would be a way to redeem himself after his dismal failure in his job husking rice for Imasu-san. (1.1.34)
Being Manjiro seems kind of rough—he's all about guilt-tripping over his inability to provide for his family. You have to wonder if his obligation to his family just stresses him out more than anything else.
Quote #3
The ache he had felt when his father died had been a sharp pain at first, but had dulled over time until he hardly noticed it. But now, like a sore muscle, the pain flared up again. He longed for his mother, and for his dead father, too. Imagining himself dead in one of those graves made him even miss himself! (1.2.65)
Manjiro's in the middle of contemplating life without his family because he's just seen a few gravestones on the secluded island. What's interesting is who he imagines dying. You'd think that the gravestones make him imagine himself dying—and they do—but they also make him think of his mother and dead father.
His imagination makes the pain of losing a parent "flare up again," which—if you think about it—is a way of making him feel more alive. Sure, he's thinking seriously morbid thoughts, but if you're feeling pain, then it must mean that you're alive and kicking, right? So maybe thinking these depressing thoughts about his family makes Manjiro almost more alive and closer to his dead father and remaining family.