Billy Budd Chapter 1 Analysis

Chapter One In chapter one of How to Read Literature Like a Professional, Foster explains that every story has a trip, or quest. He explains what a quest consists of and that the real reason for a quest is never the stated reason. The quester is often young and has a lot of self-exploration do to, stressing that the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge. This relates to Billy Budd as he is a twenty-one-year-old sailor on a new expedition on the H.M.S. Bellipotent. Billy is portrayed as a kindhearted, unpretentious man; making him that much more vulnerable to the hard, unfair ways of people. Billy’s expedition was not to be of service for war, but exactly what Foster states in his first chapter. Billy’s trip on the ocean wasn’t to a certain destination but a different state of mind and …show more content…
He starts out as “Baby Budd”, being innocent and gentle soldier as well as noble, but he can't help but be distraught about Claggart’s evil nature and the fact that Claggart doesn’t like him. Billy is constantly messy up simple tasks around Claggart, giving him more amo to tease and crack jokes about him. You can only imagine what this torment is doing to innocent Billy who is used to being liked by his peers, putting a huge obstacle in front of any peace of mind he might be able to obtain again, drastically affecting his character. Claggart goes to the extent of accusing Billy of conspiracy ultimately challenging his tolerance and result in Billy punching Claggart to death and is set to be hung as punishment. This whole story describes Billy’s growing self-knowledge through violence that Billy is not accustom to. All of the time spent on the ocean with Clato Rggart wasn’t about the stated reason of war service but rather learn, although the lesson had a negative outcome, to be pushed out of your comfort zone and experience new situations and realizing there are different people in the world that may not have the same mind set