Part one of term paper
Herman Mellville's Billy Budd is and extremely divisive novel when one considers the dissension it has generated. The criticism has essentially focused around the argument of acceptance vs. resistance. On the one hand we can read the story as accepting the hanging of d as the necessary ends of justice. We can read Vere's condemnation as a ne ...

Part two of term paper
... guilt? Here we have a story about two murders. Billy kills Claggart and Vere (Although indirectly, the decision is ultimately his) kills Budd. Neither of the murderers show guilt in the form of remorse. For a narrative that tries to put the reader in a moral and ethical position, isn't it ironic that the characters themselves don't exhibit what would seem most ethical? Immediately following the fatal blow to Claggart, There is no outlet of Billy's emotion; whatever emotion he may be experiencing is ...