BILLY BUDD Essays - Billy Budd, Herman Melville, Billy, Budd

BILLY BUDD Essays - Billy Budd, Herman Melville, Billy, Budd BILLY BUDD Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were perfect. They were innocent and ignorant, yet perfect, so they were allowed to abide in the presence of God. Once they partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, however, they immediately became unclean as well as mortal. In Billy Budd, the author, Herman Melville, presents a question that stems directly from this original sin of our first parents: Is it better to be innocent and ignorant, but good and righteous, or is it better to be experienced and knowledgeable? I believe that through this book, Melville is telling us that we need to strike some kind of balance between these two ideas; we need to have morality and virtue; we need to be in the world, but not of the world. To illustrate his theme, Melville uses a few characters who are all very different, the most important of which is Billy Budd. Billy is the focal point of the book and the single person whom we are meant to learn the most from. On the ship, the Rights-of-Man, Billy is a cynosure among his shipmates; a leader, not by authority, but by example. All the members of the crew look up to him and love him. He is strength and beauty. Tales of his prowess [are] recited. Ashore he [is] the champion, afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost(9). Despite his popularity among the crew and his hardworking attitude, Billy is transferred to another British ship, the Indomitable. And while he is accepted for his looks and happy personality, hardly here [is] he that cynosure he had previously been among those minor ships companies of the merchant marine(14). It is here, on the Indomitable that Billy says good-bye to his rights. It is here, also, that Billy meets John Claggart, the master-at-arms. A man in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious training or corrupting books or licentious living but born with him and innate, in short a depravity according to nature(38). Here then, is presented a man with a personality and character to contrast and conflict with Billys. Sweet, innocent Billy immediately realizes that this man is someone he does not wish to cross and so after seeing Claggart whip another crew-member for neglecting his responsibilities, Billy resolved that never through remissness would he make himself liable to such a visitation or do or omit aught that might merit even verbal reproof(31). Billy is so good and so innocent that he tries his hardest to stay out of trouble. What then was his surprise and concern when ultimately he found himself getting into petty trouble occasionally about such matters as the stowage of his bagwhich brought down on him a vague threat from one of [the ships corporals](31). These small threats and incidents establish the tension between Claggart and Billy, and set the stage for a later confrontation. They also force Billy to search for help. The person he goes to is yet another type of character presented in this book. Red Whiskers. Red Whiskers was an old veteran, long anglicized in the service, of few words, many wrinkles, and some honorable scars(31). Billy recognizes the old Dansker as a figure of experience, and after showing respect and courtesy which Billy believes due to his elder, finally seeks his advice, but what he is told thoroughly astonishes him. Red Whiskers tells Billy that for some reason, Claggart is after Billy, but Billy cannot believe it because he is so innocent and trusting. Through this situation Billy now finds himself in, Melville has us ask ourselves a question: Would it be right for Billy to heed the advice of experience and wisdom and tell the captain about Claggarts conspiracy? Or should he instead keep his mouth shut and try to work things out himself? Being the good person that he is, Billy tries to forget about it and hopes that it will pass, but it does not. And that is where the fourth of these few characters comes in. Captain Vere, with his love for knowledge and books, and his settled convictions [which stood] as a dike against those invading

The Combining Form -pod

The Combining Form -pod The Combining Form -pod The Combining Form -pod By Maeve Maddox The Greek and Latin words for leg and foot have given English the combining form -pod. Some words formed with -pod entered English earlier, but a great many were coined in the nineteenth century as the study of entomology and paleontology expanded. Here are a few, with their literal meanings and the date of their earliest citation in the OED. arthropod 1861 (arthro=joint) Insects, spiders, and crustaceans are arthropods. cephalopod 1826 (cephal=head) Cephalopods are creatures like octopus and squid whose â€Å"legs† are attached directly to their heads. diplopod 1864 (diplo=double) Diplopods have numerous legs, attached in pairs on each segment of the body. Thousand-leggers (millipedes) are diplopods. gastropod 1826 (gastro=stomach) A snail is a gastropod. It moves along with a single muscular â€Å"foot† attached to its abdomen. hexapod 1668 (hex=six) Insects are hexapods. isopod 1835 (iso=equal) An isopod has seven pairs of equal and similarly placed thoracic legs. A familiar isopod is the roly-poly (aka woodlouse/pillbug). myriapod (myria=10,000) Some of these pod words overlap. A myriapod, like a diplopod, has a lot of legs attached in pairs to the segments of their bodies. octopod 1817 (octo=eight) Literally â€Å"eight-legged,† an octopod is a cephalopod with eight tentacles. ornithopod 1886 (ornith=bird) This name attaches to plant-eating dinosaurs with bird-shaped hips, three- or four-toed feet, powerful teeth and jaws and lack of such features as armor plating. polypod 1612 (poly=many) Any animal with several feet is a polypod. pseudopod 1874 (pseudo=false) The one-celled amoeba moves by extending bits of its central blob and using them as feet. pteropod 1833 (ptero=wing) These are sea mollusks whose â€Å"feet† have side projections that look like wings. Some pteropods have the lovely common names of â€Å"sea butterflies† and â€Å"sea angels.† sauropod 1884 (sauro=lizard) Literally â€Å"lizard-footed,† the sauropods were the really big dinosaurs, like Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, and Brontosaurus. Note: The Diplodocus got its name from a peculiarity of its tail bones. The word combines diplo, double+ dokos, beam. theropod 1891 (ther=beast) Theropods are the carnivorous dinosaurs whose feet resembled those of quadrupeds rather than birds. Other English words contain the element pod as a prefix or suffix, but this post focuses on animals. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Rules for Writing Numbers and NumeralsUsing the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions