With his good appearance and friendly nature, Billy is portrayed as a almost perfect character. This incident between Billy and "Red Whiskers" is meant to show the audience that as likable and innocent Billy may seem, he is physically powerful, and able to inflict pain using violence. His character is also slightly impulsive, "he gave the burly fool a terrible drubbing" (295) . As much as this sounds like a violent encounter from our perspective, this earns respect and love from "Red Whiskers". This can suggest the author is foreshadowing what will later on happen in the book due to Billy's use of violence. Red Whiskers is just a character used to show Billy's violent side of his almost perfect persona.
8. What is Billy's flaw? How important is this flaw in understanding his overall character? Has it altered your original evaluation of him? How?
Billy's greatest flaw is his innocence. Although it may not seem like one, what comes with this quality, comes gullibility, which can make him very vulnerable to any kind of influence, as well as evil ones. If he trusts everyone, there is no longer a border between good and evil and eventually he will have a psychological war with his conscience, not knowing which one is the "right choice". Some may not view this as a flaw because innocence is a large part of what make Billy so affable to the crew and the audience (of the book) alike, but if you weigh the differences, his innocence is more of a flaw, than what adds to his perfection.This has definitely altered my original evaluation of Billy because the novel does not focus on what is bad about him, but what is good. However, in all that perfection lies a giant hole in Billy's character which is how exposed he is to others' influences'.
[please ignore the fact that this is homer simpson]
i chose this image because Billy Budd is almost perfect in every way externally, he is lacking a lot mentally. He is simple-minded, does not have much experience with the world, has a limited amount of vocabulary and occasionally primitive.
lol @ your face
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that you said Billy Budd is able to inflict violence and is not exactly what his appearance may seem like, friendly, nice and innocent. I think that as much as there is the notion where one should not, “judge a book by its cover,” I also believe that all (or at least most) things happen for a reason. So this may be a well thought-out foreshadowing moment, which may indicate that Billy’s sudden aggressiveness may be his weak point in the future and may cost him. As far as his flaw is concerned, I think that I have already answered that but I would just like to say that him being innocent to the point of him being gullible seems kind of simple and ignorant because it’s blatantly obvious that he will not reach that point. However I commend you for think outside of the box, Stoopher.
ReplyDelete