Use Of Symbolism In Herman Melville's Billy Budd

     The use of symbols heavily influences the book. Most of the symbols are religious ones because of Melville’s belief at the time. The most compelling symbol is that of Billy being compared to Jesus. Like Jesus he is viewed as pure and innocent and having no real character flaws. He always tries to do the right thing and stay out of everyone’s way. Claggart would be compared to the Pharisees that Jesus had to deal with. His whole purpose is to cause the downfall of Billy and he succeeds. Billy also is a symbol of Jesus while he is at trial. While Jesus is on trial he says nothing in his defense that could facilitate his release. Neither

Billy’s retaliation leads to another conflict between good and evil where Captain Vere must decide Billy’s fate after he commits a crime punishable by death after killing Claggart. Vere likes Billy’s character and would not like to see Billy put to death. Vere accepts that Claggart provoked Billy’s retaliation by lying and can see the evil in Claggart but also recognizes the call of duty which at war-time was non-tolerable for such an offence. Vere is troubled with the conflict of conscience and duty and under the circumstances of war he does what is right and has Billy hung. Captain Vere loves Billy and has no problem with him in any way but finds where authority has evil it will command.

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener” the author, Herman Melville, uses indirect references to hint to many historical, literary, and biblical events. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” contains many allusions about important events that help connect this fictional story to actual events in Melville’s time period, before, and beyond. Melville uses allusions frequently throughout “Bartleby, the Scrivener” to help build connections with the real world and the fictitious world of this short story.

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.

Billy Budd should not have punched John Claggart for three reasons: the possible risk, needless violence, and poor representation.

Billy has lost a sense of love as death has faced him in the eyes once too many. Billy deals with his pain by turning to alcohol abuse, he cannot deal with his mourning, "Sometimes it's not as if they have died so much as that I myself have died and become a ghost." (43). From Dolores and Billy, the central theme is slowly revealed.

In defending the helpless, Billy Jack becomes powerful but unintended hero. He defends his community this time, because of the inequality that they face every day by the white man used to go un-noticed. He represents that a hateful society is never right and throws the violent game that the white authority figures use back in their faces. Billy Jack ignores the same law the white bullies ignore, so he justifies the defense of the community through violence. Since he knows that just because their skin is darker, some people may use this as an excuse to segregate the Native Americans without anything being done about it. Billy Jack learned martial arts to defend himself while a Green Beret. He uses this skill as an equalizer for a community that is constantly harassed by individuals intent on frightening not only by using words but also by using force as a means taken to prevent them from being welcome in town. Most individuals are peaceful and do not jump right into violence to gain justice from inequality, but as stated before words do not change behavior like actions can. It was Billy Jacks approach that received more attention caused by his actions both peaceful and aggressive. At the end of the movie Billy Jack does get arrested after surrendering. He felt like he had done

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:

Herman Melville's Billy Budd provides us with a summation and conclusive commentary on the ambiguities of moral righteousness and social necessity. The conflict that arises pitting natural justice in opposition to military justice essentially deliberates over whether the sacrifice of the individual is required for the continuum and conservation of social order. The deep allegorical theme of the passion of Christ that resides in Billy Budd illustrates Melville's adjudication on this issue. The sacrifice of Billy Budd for the upholding of social order is an illusionary backdrop to Christ offering up His life for the forgiveness of the sins of mankind. Melville implements this theological staple

Billy Budd is a simple man who has a stuttering problem and also he cannot read. Billy did not let that stop him from helping

There are many facets that can either make or break someone as a “hero”. In literature, a hero does not necessarily have to be a knight in shining armor, a caped crusader, or an exact replica of the archetype but, there are certain qualities and expectations that determine what makes a hero. A typical hero has strength, appeal, courage, righteousness, and success, meaning that they have the physical and mental capabilities that can lead them to eventually achieve their goals. In most cases, the protagonist of a story is the hero, but this is not true in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. Set in Sleepy Hollow, the story chronicles schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane’s, time and sudden disappearance from the “haunted” town.

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

Paglia notes the “matrimonial language” Melville uses to portray “a ritual of male bonding” in her argument that women’s “sexual allure is never acknowledged” (700). However, by using this “matrimonial language”, Melville is doing the opposite; through these marriage parallels he acknowledges the importance of balance that occurs between the feminine and masculine. The landlord and boarders at the Spouter Inn give evidence of this “allure” by being “amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship” between Ishmael and Queequeg (Melville 61). Breaking down the mystery exposes Melville’s unconventional portrayal of gender-fluidity. Ishmael’s muses “Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other… in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg- a cosy, loving pair,” when sharing a bed with Queequeg (Melville 57). Though Ishmael is biologically male, he takes on the feminine role of wife, and with it, expressive and affectionate emotions. By comparing their friendship to that of husband and wife, Melville contrasts the destructive nature of masculinity otherwise present on the ship’s all-male microcosm. The nurturing characteristics of their bonding oppose the failure later seen by the overly masculine environment at the Spouter Inn. Their coziness acts as a contrast to the whalemen’s silent breakfast and isolation of

He resorts to a political argument because his convoluted legal arguments are failing. In another article entitled “How Judges Speak: Some Lessons on Adjudication in Billy Budd, Sailor”, Weisburg contends “so effective is his pattern of argumentation that the critics, as well as the drumhead court, have largely granted it credence…Vere’s articulated reasons for hanging Billy do not withstand the analysis of even his junior officers” (Weisburg, “How”). Vere convinces the men that it would be in their best interest to execute Billy so that their ship does not rise in mutiny. Because Vere is the Captain, his speech and rhetoric are so persuasive that both the panel and the readers of the novella do not question it, hence another form of how considerate communication is being used in different areas of the novella (Weisburg, “9”, 162). Vere’s communication in chapter 21 is result-oriented, thus he cleverly uses specific language for his own motivations. Not once did he let the jury know that Billy had an intense stutter; because he omitted this detail, his argument was considerate in the sense that he selectively relayed information to the jury, as Minda further reasons. In Vere’s final argument, he exercises the same form of deception he advises the officers to use on the people of the ship.