"Cliff Notes - Billy Budd" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

inside narrative"--that appears in parentheses under the book's
title. What can this mean? You might skip over it because you want
to get on with the story, but it's worth pausing to think about.
Narrative, we know, means that the written language is going to tell
a story. But "inside?" There are many senses in which you can read
this word, and each will have a bearing on your overall
interpretation of Billy Budd. One sense is to think of it as an
insider's narrative--a story told by someone who has the inside
scoop, who has a privileged position and knows what's going on
inside all the character's heads. You can also think of it as inside
as opposed to outside: A narrative that occurs behind closed doors,
hidden away in the recesses of the ship. On the other hand, it might
mean inside in the sense of inside the mind. Thus, an inside
narrative becomes a symbolic story of the inner workings of
consciousness. In this reading, every major action and character
stands for a spiritual or psychological concept. Your interpretation
of Billy Budd will depend, in part, on the sense in which you read
"an inside narrative." Keep this in mind as you go through the book.

Now that we have a general description of the Handsome Sailor, the
narrator gives us a specific example of one. Again, the example is
in the form of a picture painted in strong, clear colors. We see a
tall African man, "intensely black," whose face is shining with
sweat on a hot day. He smiles "with barbaric good humor-" and his
fellow sailors are proud to be seen with him. Though this seems to
have nothing to do with the story of Billy Budd, it's actually an
important digression, one of several in the book. That this
particular Handsome Sailor is black shows more than the narrator's
nonracist point of view. Colors, especially black and white, have a
special importance in the story--one that is the reverse of what you
might think. If you have read Moby-Dick, the story of the great
white whale, you know that white, in that book, symbolizes evil, the
absence of good qualities. In Billy Budd blackness has nothing to do
with evil, it's just part of the sailor's good looks. (You'll notice
that when the villain Claggart is introduced, a point is made of
describing how sickly pale and white his skin is.) But that's not
the only surprising association in this passage. Barbaric is linked
with good humor. So, while you might think of barbaric as being
cruel, dangerous, and savage, the narrator is telling you right away
that, if you're barbaric, you can also be pleasant and sociable. As
we'll soon see, the positive meanings of barbaric give us important
insight into the character of Billy Budd himself.

Having defined the Handsome Sailor both in general and with a
specific example from Africa, the narrator now brings Billy Budd on
the scene. Billy, we're told, is a Handsome Sailor as well, and has
the noble nature of this type "with important variations made
apparent as the story proceeds." The vagueness here only whets our
appetite to read on. He's 21, and he's a foretopman in the British
Navy, which means his position aboard ship is the platform on the