Biblical_Refenrance

Biblical Refenrance Biblical Allusions in Billy Budd Prior to their down 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' Melville explains to 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 billy, melville, claggart, vere, about, world, innocent, death, captain, wisdom, whiskers, way, red, one, man, himself, good, few, experience, evil, book, better, among, after, through, sin, set, question, presented, person, ourselves, old, need, keep, crew, because, another, always, according, yet, whom, virtue, trouble, tries, thinking, showing, should, ship’s, shipmates, ship