Working the Waters

            In Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor he presents moral issues, many of which are still alive today.  The biggest moral question that Melville presents to us is weather or not Billy Budd’s death was justified.  This is the same question alive today about weather or not capital punishment it justified.    Billy buds execution was a tragedy, and so is the existence of capital punishment in our society today.

            In the book Billy Budd, Sailor, Billy is most defiantly the hero character, with a strong moral standing and peaceful demeanor.   From the very beginning of the story Billy is portrayed as an angelic figure, his former captain, when faced with the impressment of  Billy Budd into service for the royal navy, is quoted to say “Lieutenant, you are going to take the jewel of ‘em; you are going to take my peacemaker!”   Later in the book when Billy is approached to take part in a mutiny and is bribed to do so, he angrily refuses, shocked that anyone would assume he would take part in such unjust and evil things.  While Melville presents the decision for the reader about weather Captain Vere did the right thing in pushing the court towards the hanging of Billy Budd, one could make the case in that Melville has made that decision for you in glorifying Billy’s character.  It defiantly seems that the execution was a wrong doing by the time you put down the book, he has made Billy Budd out to be a martyr.

            Capital punishment has been a hot political issue in the United States for some time now.  Both sides of the argument make great points and there is a lot of passion and feelings behind it.  The questions stands, that if someone takes a life does he deserve in turn to have his life taken as well?  Will the death penalty bring peace of mind to those loved ones of the deceased?   I do not believe in justified murder, in all of its forms no person has the right to decide weather someone else deserves to live or not.  I especially don’t agree with laws that make a mandatory sentence of death, all cases are different and deserve special consequences.    The turmoil that Captain Vere faces is that of upholding the Law, the English mutiny act, designed to help prevent mutiny states that any sailor that acts out in violence against an officer must be put to death.

This is a very rough draft, My heart and brain do not seem to be into it today and I plan on rewriting a lot of the paper before Friday, please give me more ideas on how to expand on my thesis and any thoughts on a concluding paragraph, I wish I could have written a more complete draft I will strive to do more next time.