Billy Budd - Good And Evil Essay

Kanye West and Harding’s quotes both relate to the character Billy Bibbit because he was an outcast in society and thought lowly of himself. Billy was different, and because of this, society did not accept him and that caused him to stay sheltered by his mother. His mother was overprotective and did not toughen Billy up, so Billy had a stutter and a deep dependence on other people. When he got to the hospital, he had no experience in the real world, and he suddenly had no help from his mother. This led him to be more withdrawn and allowed people to belittle him because he could not stand up for himself. After being made fun of and thrown aside by society, Billy had no self confidence. His feelings towards himself were only negative, and these feelings rules

     Captain Vere knew that Billy did not mean for him to die but he still calls a trial for murder. Captain Vere knew that Billy was not going to revolt as well but because of the mutinies that had been taking place at that time, Vere did not want to show any weakness. Billy could have probably gotten off had he turned in the other men who were actually planning to revolt but he didn’t because of his loyalty to his crew. He lost the trial and was hanged, his last words being, “God Bless Captain Vere!';

The central conflict of this book is Billy coming to terms with the unfortunate events happening around him, and facing this character versus world scenario of everything and everyone always being against him in some way or another. Billy sees so much suffering and so much death. He is blamed for the death of Ronald Weary, which is not his fault. He witnesses the Dresden Firebombing, and has an overall uneventful blain life to begin with. Billy needs to find a way to cope with this unbearable pressure, and whether or not the Tralmalfadorians are real, their message is real to Billy. The philosophy they present is the excuse Billy needs to justify all the wrong he sees around him. The Tralmalfadorian belief being that there is no free will, and that you timeline is fact, and that you simply experience death, but continue “existing” afterwards. Essentially, you always exist and what happens to you is predetermined fate. This allows Billy to pass on all of the death and misery around him as meant to be. He can rest assured knowing that there is nothing he could about anything in the past, present, or future. There was nothing he could have done or can do to stop the death and torture, weather it is the death of his wife, the firebombing in Dresden, or even his own death. This motivation-less philosophy is his resolution to his devastating conflict, and is directly responsible for his lack of action throughout the story.

To the casual eye, Billy looks like the typical bad boy. A boy that ran away from home, showing his rebellious tendencies. A boy that would most certainly be a bad influence over anyone. However, as we take a closer look into Billy's true personality,

Right? A slit closes up. Right?’ ‘Right.’ ‘Shit. What do you know? What the hell they teach in college?’ ‘I wasn’t there very long,’ said Billy, which was true” (Vonnegut 37). As you can tell after reading that quote, Billy isn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the bunch. Not only does he not understand a word Roland is saying to him, but he also responds with the simplest and easiest answer every time Roland questions him, even if it’s rhetorical. Roland is his own brand of stupid. As quoted in this line “He had been unpopular because he was stupid and fat and mean…” (Vonnegut 35).

It was very unlike Billy to ever do something so rash; he brought out the best in everyone. Captain Vere felt in his heart that Billy’s actions were a mistake, but he could not be sure. The accusation Claggart made was mutiny, and mutiny was a serious crime. Vere had no proof that Billy was not guilty, so for the safety of himself and his crew, he sacrificed Billy’s life.

This word choice shows that Billy’s followers were in deep frustration and anger due to the situation they had to endure. Indignation will also have been felt as it is suggested that Billy is superior to them along with taking the majority of the money brought in by the disillusioned young men. This produces our disliking of Billy because of the malevolent and selfish way he treated his seemingly loyal followers.

With this description, Vonnegut vastly distances Billy from the ideal, strong and mighty image of a soldier, yet Billy is a soldier nonetheless. Not only is this weak and ungracious character fighting and representing the honour of his country but also he is one of the few soldiers who survive the war; he outlives many of the other soldiers that could be considered better suited for war. Furthermore, Vonnegut compares Billy to a filthy flamingo, highlighting the distance that exists between society's soldier ideal, graceful and admirable, and the soldiers' reality, harsh and rampageous. In short, Billy is so far from what is expected that he “shouldn't even be in the Army” (51). However, Billy is not the only soldier in this ludicrous predicament. Vonnegut describes the entire Army as chaotic, confused and ludicrous:

Billy had no mental problems. He was more than capable of having a conversation and could have explained himself to the captain. Billy let his emotions get the best of him. Billy regretted striking Claggart. Billy was punished correctly for the crime he

While never a defeatist, Billy merely flows through his disjointed life without much heed to the event at hand. Billy realizes that he holds the power to create his own happiness and satisfaction out of life through appreciation of the present moment rather than contemplate the occurrence of past and future. Vonnegut develops Billy Pilgrim as a unique protagonist as a means of forcing the reader to question the application of free will upon society and gain a new perspective on the beauty of the present.

When he tells Billy that he needs to figure it out and snap out of it, Billy says, “ You guys go on without me. I’m all right” (Vonnegut 47). This just displays the hopelessness in Billy’s life. The war has driven him to lose touch with himself and not value his own life. This makes it very easy for a reader to feel empathy for Billy and get an idea of how war can really affect these men. Billy isn’t the only character that Vonnegut uses to depict the terrors of war.

While constantly aware of Miss Drew’s situation, Billy can’t escape the realization of his position’s possible transiency and the fact that his life depends on his usefulness in the gang: “all I had to remember was how small of a mistake was sufficient to change my fortune, maybe even without knowing it. I was an habitual accomplice to murder. I could be arrested, tried, and sentenced, to death”(123). From this, Billy is impressed with one of the fundamental rules that accompanies inclusion in gang life—absolute loyalty to the gang’s interests. Billy observes the consequences of breaking this rule of loyalty when he hops onto the boat and into the scene of Bo’s sinking figure, and later, when Schulz’s personal life becomes complicated with a pending courtcase. The gang loyally relocates to the rural small town of Onondaga to help ensure the boss avoids jailtime. After painstakingly building an amiable reputation in the town for the Boss, Schultz’s temperament leads to “the president” Julie Martin’s murder in the hotel. The entire gang dutifully cleans the room and removes the body with cover up concluding with and unprepared Billy being punched in the face. After the fact, Billy comes to see the necessity of his subsequent broken nose yet is internally insulted and cannot shake the urge to “get revenge” (159). This affront to his own ego caused a shift

The concept of morality plays an important role in human society. Through the discovery of what, exactly, determines that which is “good” and that which is “bad”, humans develop mechanisms that determine how they respond to or judge any given situation. What remains a mystery, however, is what, exactly, is the basis of morals. It is commonly believed that morals are learned through lived experiences, as well as, from those who act as each person’s individual caretaker(s). Even though these factors do play a significant role in determining morality, these factors alone neither create nor determine a person’s moral compass. In Paul Bloom’s work, Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil, we are introduced to the idea that morality, while partly learned, is something that is ingrained in humans from birth. Through multiple studies, performed both by Bloom as well as other psychologists, it is revealed that not only are babies able to perceive what is right and what is wrong, but also, from birth, babies are instilled with the innate knowledge of empathizing, valuing fairness and status, and valuing those who look similar versus those who look different. In spite of previous ideas, Bloom proves that babies are smarter than previously thought, while simultaneously recognizing the shortcomings of this “elementary” form of morality. Bloom’s finding prove to be revolutionary, in that they allow for the examination of different social structures, their shortcomings, and what

Billy Bibbit is an interesting character in the movie since you see him grow as a man, only to be knocked down once again. I rated Billy on the scale as a six, while being more towards the master mortality. Billy although he may seem like a weak person he is quite strong. He grows in the movie as a timid man, who at the end speaks for himself. McMurphy instills the confidence he needs to grow and mature. He knows and understand the good and bad consequences, but sees most decisions as bad. He also measures himself as he goes along in the movie. He values his pride as shown in one part where they are discussing his past proposal. He claims that he proposed to a girl, since he loved her very much. Only then to be knocked down by Nurse Ratched

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche discusses how he is not a believer in democracy. The principles of democracy were put together by levelers, or people that believe in democracy. These principles lead to equality that restrains life to one universal truth and Nietzsche did not agree with this idea at all. He believed that these principles caused people to form into one large herd. In this herd, people follow one another with no will to power, which results in the downfall of individual rights and instincts. This makes the herd the definition of morality in society, which Nietzsche disagrees with. But he brings up the idea of neighbor love. Neighbor love is the idea that we are all in one herd so we are all equal which creates us to all