LITR 4232: American Renaissance

University of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2002

Student Presentation Summary

Thursday, 4 April: Melville, Billy Budd (complete; through page 2714)

Reader: Rhonda Peyton

Discussion notes recorder: Val Harpster

Part 1. Sacrifice of the individual for the good of the whole

Obj. 3  passages from pages: 2688, 2689, 2700

            The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars, about 100 years before it is written. Impressment was very brutal as England struggled for survival and naval dominance over the French and Spanish navies. It begins with an impressment, recalling the frequent impressment of American sailors by the British that led to the War of 1812. In one sense this is a story about people in a desperate situation.

Question: Melville gives lots of historical references and speaks to the impressment issue through the speech and actions of the characters.  He seems to be making a statement on his views of militarism. There is apparently a significance of Billy’s being impressed from The Rights of Man to the Bellipotent.  Is he saying; (A) Human rights and civil liberties must be given up in the name of national security so sometimes an individual must be sacrificed, or (B) Unjust treatment of an individual because order had to be maintained during turmoil is not the moral and just thing to do? What contemporary lessons can we draw from the predicaments he dramatizes?

Discussion:

Dr. White – This subject is in the news currently with the “military tribunals” for the Taliban leaders.  The civil libertarians are complaining that the Taliban “detainees” are not being given the same rights as U. S. citizens in the way they are dealt with.  The rights of the individual are sacrificed in the state of emergency.

Rhonda – This is like the national security card issue. Some say all U.S. citizens need an identity card with all information about that person imbedded in it. Others say no, the government would know too much about individuals and violate their right to privacy.

Terri – It’s tragic that certain rules have to be followed without consideration. I think Melville is saying this is a bad thing.

Reani – Like the draft.  It’s for the good of the nation even if we don’t want to go to war.  The spirit of the soldiers may not be to go to war but they are simply told to fight and they have to even if they don’t want to.

Dr. White – It’s bad you loose Billy Budd, but it’s inevitable.  It’s not at all clear, in the courtroom scene, that it could have been stopped.

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Part 2. Biblical allusions

Obj. 1 passages from pages: 2690, 2692,2693, 2702, 2706, 2708, 2712

            2690 – Adam

            2692 – serpent fascination, crucifixion to behold

            2693 – dead snake, struck dead (bottom of page)

            2702 – Abraham and Isaac

            2706 – fellow man, symbolic of Judas kissing Jesus  (Dr. White resents this foot note, doesn’t work for him…power to disagree with footnotes)

2708 – fleece the lamb of God, ascension of Jesus

Question: Melville makes many biblical allusions in the story. Billy, Claggart and Vere are clearly symbolic characters. How do you think he wanted us to interpret them? Do they add to or define the meaning of this story? Is there a relationship between the political and the religious interpretations?

Discussion:

Liz – Although he brings up Jesus a lot (ultimate goodness) we need to see it as human goodness being sacrificed during war.  It seems like he was kissing him because he sees the goodness in him.

Brenda – Like he felt putting in religious aspects would keep people reading the story.

Dr. White – Robin was talking about allegory last class period.  Dr. White expressed his opinion that perhaps the allegory was being taken too literally.  “What was it you said…”

Robin – In relation to this, the priest felt he was betraying him because he saw the innocence but it didn’t fit.

Dr. White – Claggert needed to kiss him on the cheek.

Rhonda – Billy still was a human so he had some flaws, he lived in a human world, it was inevitable that he would fall.

Dr. White - …so the connection to Adam.

Reani – It reads like a morality play – a young naïve person in the military is having problems killing someone and because he doesn’t he is punished for it.  (concept is that he is punished for doing what society would demand of him in any other situation)

Dr. White – His inability to speak is what really does him in.  What does he do instead?

Sherri – This is like Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, all humanity has these flaws, it’s all gray.  We all have redemptive qualities and we all have flaws.

Dr. White – Yes, you should be seeing Hawthorne and Melville in this way.  The good and bad become entangled.  Melville does this all the time.

Liz  - One person’s thoughts or actions act on another person’s.  This causes reactions based on the act rather than on the person.

Robin – In the court martial, the character’s actions don’t fit the characters.  This was not what I expected of a “learned” book loving man.  It was too rigid.  I kept thinking, “Make up your mind”.  Play of good and evil, knowledge and innocence, was set up for the ending.  To have a supernatural action you must have a set up and the “gray” reflects this.

Rhonda – Billy was a symbol of good and innocence, Claggert was a symbol of bad and evil.  Vere was just an authority to help preserve the state/country.  The comparison to Adam is important.  Adam had the defect and fell; because Billy lived in a human world he fell also.  Good and evil live side and side and are hard to separate.

Dr. White – Hawthorne was a Calvinist and the early settlers tended to be more Calvinistic believing that human are by nature sinful.  The Baptists operate on an idea of free will, Calvinists believe it’s God’s choice, not man’s, whether a man is good or bad.  In the Calvinist viewpoint you never really know if you’re off the hook.  The Dutch reformed church was Calvinist (New York).  Melville inherits this idea and uses it.