Bill Budd :: essays research papers

Herman Melville&8217s wand Budd is a story active true goodness. It entails the conflict of good and evil, but more than that it portrays innocence in its&8217 most purest form. Innocence is an exploitable commodity. While this is universally recognized, there are legion(predicate) different ways people confront it. Some people learn to embrace and protect it. While others adopt to abuse it and corrupt it. Those who choose the latter are evil&61630plain and simple. By making this filling they are reflecting not upon the innocent, but upon themselves. This reflection is humanity in its darkest configuration. billystick Budd and John Claggart are opposing forces. Billy Budd who is described as &8220 fortissimo and beauty. Tales of his prowess recited. Ashore he the champion, afloat the spokesman on every suited occasion always foremost. John Claggart, a man &8220in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious training or change books or licentious living bu t born with him and innate, in in short &8216a depravity according to nature.&8217 These two people who are all the way 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 two men portrays the triumph of sinister forces over the meek. John Claggart, who is a coercive and feared man aboard Bellipotent, lashes out at Billy who is for the most parcel defenseless. This is an injustice of biblical proportions.What could bemuse 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 evilness in Claggart.To discourage Billy&8217s goodness is to compromise the very thing that makes us human in the first place&61630Humans seek 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 render and honor. Billy&8217s death was, in a word&61630majestic. &8220At the same moment it chanced that the vapory wool hanging low in the easterly 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 fix mass