Billy Budd Research Paper

In the early 19th century, Herman Melville’s literary works highlighted the philosophical yet realistic experiences of experienced yet conflicted sailors, while he tinkers with various literary styles and forms.

As he loved writing about philosophy, in Moby Dick, he characterized Ishmael as a curious yet concrete man as he journeyed through life initially as blind. At first, his point of view was the fact that the sea was his calm, undying death bed. But as he lived on as a sailor, his viewpoint changed. He was then aware of all (or most) of the horrors of the sea, and he very often noted this in his novel. The idea where a man should see the world for it’s true nature is unnatural and rare, as few men tried to acknowledge the insanity of

(Wow. Even in the 19th century, men and women had issues with being good people. Isn’t it crazy how even today nothing has gotten better? People in general should not only advance technologically but socially, right? We can go from slaves in one century, to being segregated in the next, and then being economically but not socially free. But there is still hardly any change. Though the novel is about sailing and the life of a sailor, there are underlying messages and references about social issue if you analyze deep

The main protagonist, Billy Budd, was an honest, hardworking, and genuine man. He never intentionally set out to harm anyone, and he had good intentions. John Claggart, the main antagonist, set out to sabotage Billy in anyway possible. For example, in the wake of a known mutiny, Claggart seized the opportunity and told the captain very negative things about Billy, in turn, nearly getting Billy attacked.

Melville set up the story in a way to where as the characters develop, so does the conflict, per the usual. But in this case, the point of view in which the story is told enhances the tension in the story, ultimately increasing the pressure that is being put on the reader. Given that Herman’s writing style consisted highly of “realistic fiction”, he had to include elements of his own life, including the ship being taken over by a crew and him escaping in the end.

In a symbolism sense, the narrator loves Billy Budd. One of the ways that you can tell is that he is constantly comparing Billy Budd to religious figures. The comparisons mainly fall into two different categories: those linking Billy to Adam before the "Fall of Man," and those comparing Billy to