Bill Budd :: essays research papers

Her musical composition Melville&8217s billy Budd is a story about true goodness. It entails the conflict of good and evil, just now more than that it portrays innocence in its&8217 about purest form. Innocence is an exploitable commodity. While this is universally recognized, there argon many different ways people confront it. Some people choose to embrace and harbor it. While others choose to abuse it and corrupt it. Those who choose the latter are evil&61630plain and simple. By making this choice they are reflecting not upon the innocent, but upon themselves. This reflection is humanity in its darkest configuration.Billy Budd and John Claggart are opposing forces. Billy Budd who is described as &8220strength and beauty. Tales of his prowess recited. Ashore he the champion, adrift(predicate) the spokesman on every suitable occasion always foremost. John Claggart, a man &8220in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious raising or corrupting books or licen tious living but born with him and innate, in short &8216a depravity according to nature.&8217 These two people who are clearly on opposite sides of the spectrum contrast one another in a plethora of ways. Where Billy is sweet, John is bitter. Where Billy is nave, John is knowledgeable. Where Billy is content, John is jealous. Lastly, where Billy is good, John is bad.The ugliness that results in the death of both men portrays the triumph of sinister forces over the meek. John Claggart, who is a powerful and feared man aboard Bellipotent, lashes out at Billy who is for the most part defenseless. This is an injustice of biblical proportions.What could have prevented this from happening? Perhaps, if Billy picked up on John&8217s malicious intent the entire tragedy could have been avoided. But, on the other hand Billy was good and sought goodness. That is why he failed to see the wickedness in Claggart.To discourage Billy&8217s goodness is to compromise the very thing that makes us huma n in the first place&61630Humans hear goodness instinctively. Thus, it is society&8217s innate responsibility to protect the good (nave) from those who are in a position to hurt them (people with knowledge.)The significance of Billy&8217s death is that of sacrifice and honor. Billy&8217s death was, in a word&61630majestic. &8220At the same moment it chanced that the vapory fleece hanging low in the East was shot through with a soft glory as of the fleece of the Lamb of God seen in mystical vision, and simultaneously therewith, watched by the impacted mass