"Billy Budd, Sailor"

Paper Summary:

The writer of this paper details the characters, plot and dark imagery depicted in Herman Melville's novel "Billy, Budd, Sailor." Melville's novel is an inside narrative about a young man and his adventures on the South Seas. This paper focuses on the novel's vivid characters and objects that are composed of attributes that are associated with both light and dark images, which enables the reader to become acquainted with and grasp each individual element of the story.

From the Paper:

"The light images apparent in chapter one, all possess one important quality-they bring joy and happiness to someone. These images include, an African sailor, Billy Budd, and the ship, Rights-of-Man. The African sailor, first mentioned at the very beginning of the chapter, was described vividly. "The two ends of a gray silk handerkerchief thrown loose about the neck danced upon the displayed ebony of his chest, in his ears were big hoops of gold...it was a hot noon in July; and his face lustrous with perspiration, beamed with barbaric good humor. In jovial sallies right and left, his white teeth flashing into view, he rollicked along, the center of a company of his shipmates." Even though this man was dark in complexion, his soul shone through his outer features and made people flock around him, as mentioned in the quote. Billy Budd, the main character of this story, is also another representative of a light image. During the incident when Billy was to be impressed onto another ship, his captain began begging for someone else to be taken in his place. "Beg pardon, but you don't understand, Lieutenant."

More papers on "Billy Budd, Sailor":

• Book Review # 106913 : "Herman Melville's "Billy Bud, Sailor"
• Analytical Essay # 121259 : "Non-Allegorical Reading of "Billy Budd"
• Essay # 73693 : "Idealism in "Billy Budd"

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