A Comparison Of Billy Budd And The Great Mutiny
The final three chapters of Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville provides three different versions of the plot that possessed a various degree of honesty. Yet it does not determine its influence on society and its history, for it is dependent on how loud it is. For instance, the report on Billy Budd written by the British press is the loudest and most influential. However, the press used it as an opportunity to further the political narrative of the Great Mutiny. From its writing style, the report emphasized on dramatic wording that described Billy Budd and his crime as “the enormity of the crime and the extreme depravity of the criminal” (Melville, 87). It is reminiscent of Howard Zinn’s description of Christopher Columbus conquest and subsequent
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genocide as “the telling of a grand romance” (Zinn, 9). From that, the piece comes off more of a fiction writing than a news report. Although it is the most deceitful of the three, the remained the loudest heard by the masses for its emphasis on drama and political propaganda.
The elegy is considerably the opposite of the British press’ report.
Both were written and published in the press, yet the elegy is written in the style of a lyrical poetry due to the writer’s talent in that writing style. Like the news report, it omitted fact surrounding the death of Billy Budd. While they are ignorant of the full story, they did instinctively felt that Billy was a sort of man as incapable of mutiny as of willful murder” (Melville, 89). Yet as a creative piece published without permission, it is considerably as loud and influential as the report. Although it does not tell the whole story about the Billy Budd’s crime and death, it is ironically truthful in comparison to the news report.
That leaves us with the final words of Captain Vere as heard by his attendant. Although his final words were in a form of a mantra repeating Billy Budd’s name. While the way he uttered those word described as not remorseful, yet as “the most reluctant to condemn of the members of the drum-head court…he kept the knowledge to himself, who Billy Budd was” (86). While that could count an omission of facts, it is the most truthful of the three accounts. Thus, the quietest voice could likely be honest while the loudest is the most deceitful. Perhaps that is how “history is written by the
victors”.
genocide as “the telling of a grand romance” (Zinn, 9). From that, the piece comes off more of a fiction writing than a news report. Although it is the most deceitful of the three, the remained the loudest heard by the masses for its emphasis on drama and political propaganda.
The elegy is considerably the opposite of the British press’ report.
Both were written and published in the press, yet the elegy is written in the style of a lyrical poetry due to the writer’s talent in that writing style. Like the news report, it omitted fact surrounding the death of Billy Budd. While they are ignorant of the full story, they did instinctively felt that Billy was a sort of man as incapable of mutiny as of willful murder” (Melville, 89). Yet as a creative piece published without permission, it is considerably as loud and influential as the report. Although it does not tell the whole story about the Billy Budd’s crime and death, it is ironically truthful in comparison to the news report.
That leaves us with the final words of Captain Vere as heard by his attendant. Although his final words were in a form of a mantra repeating Billy Budd’s name. While the way he uttered those word described as not remorseful, yet as “the most reluctant to condemn of the members of the drum-head court…he kept the knowledge to himself, who Billy Budd was” (86). While that could count an omission of facts, it is the most truthful of the three accounts. Thus, the quietest voice could likely be honest while the loudest is the most deceitful. Perhaps that is how “history is written by the
victors”.