Billy Budd Thesis Paper Essay, Research Paper
When reading the book Billy Budd by, Herman Melville, You use your mind to create the setting, characters and the meaning of one thing to another. When one let s someone else tell you what is happening: who a character is, and what a ship looks like, they then are forfeiting a large part of a story. As one reads a book, you are the director, the staring actor and the producer. As I watched the movie, my brain was now at the mercy of the director of the movie version of Billy Budd. Now that I have seen the movie, I can not go back to the way it was. As the director made this movie, he decided to leave out a large portion of the book. The last ten pages. Why would one do that? Did he feel it wasn t important? Why would you let an ignorant man make that decision for the rest of the world. He makes what he wants everyone to see. We are at the mercy of a corporate world, which has a say in everything and anything we do. The author obviously wrote the final 10 pages for a reason. He wasn t done saying everything that he wanted to say in the story Billy Budd. I find the poem at the end of the book to be the most interesting part in the end. The poem seems to be a summary of who Billy was as a person. I feel its not a 1st person thing, but more of someone talking about him as a person. Good of the chaplain to enter Lone Bay And down on his marrowbones here and pray For the likes just o me, Billy Budd.-But look : Through the port comes the moonshine astray!(94). This says to me that one of the characters writing this after his death. I feel the entire poem especially the beginning is stating that Billy has the Christ-like figure in him. I am always confused when it comes to poems what one person is trying to say. When I write poems, they don t always make sense. Now why would the director of the movie not include this poem in one way or another? Well he probably just doesn t care. He is part of the corporate America, so I can t really expect him to care about the rest of the world. When one watch s a movie you are basically giving up an entire sense of yourself. As the movie ends, it just shows the ship fighting another ship, doesn t even do anything else, and just pans away. That really pissed me off.
Another problem I had was the difference in the actually death of Billy in the book from the movie. The movie also didn t demonstrate the fullness of Billy s connection with Christ. At the same moment it chanced that the vapory fleece hanging low in the East was shot through with a soft glory as of the fleece of the Lamb of God seen in mystical vision, and simultaneously therewith, watched by the wedged mass of upturned faces, Billy ascended, and, ascending, took the full rose of the dawn (80). I feel that that is trying to say one thing to me. Through this allusion to Christ s crucifixion, he is showing us that perhaps we should not always only be concerned about ourselves, but also about those around us. It makes sense to say that that Billy gave up himself to save his crew. I don t feel that the Christ figure that Billy is made to be in the book. Yet again, my statement of showing everyone what they want to see and not what should have been shown. The director and everyone involved left out very important things in the last ten pages I feel. The silence following Billy s hanging, and the entire crews feelings. This section should have been left in defiantly. The poem is most important. It says so many things to everyone differently. Which to me is the most beautiful thing about poetry. No one can say what a poem means. Atleast don t say it to me, or I will be forced to tell you that you re opinion means nothing to me when referring to a poem. The Christ perception of Billy was barely demonstrated at all. The world as a whole doesn t see what s most important. The fascism of America has everyone blinded by greed, money and power. A corporate American has more of say in what you think that you do. If America wasn t so tied up in wanting to be the most popular or wanting to smooth everything out to the publics eye, then it will be a better America.