Billy Budd

Fighting an eternal battle of good and evil
Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd addresses many issues. His ideas are illustrated through various literary elements. The eternal battle of good and evil is one topic that is best seen through characterization and Melville’s elaborate use of symbols. He uses the characters Billy Budd and John Claggart as the embodiments of good and evil. Through these characters he shows us the two extremes of good and evil. While these characters cannot change themselves, each one of us must choose something in between these extremes because both good and evil will forever battle within each of us.
Symbolism and characterization are intertwined in this story. The characters themselves are symbols. Billy is a symbolic Christ figure. At the moment of his execution he was “...