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Melville’s View of Christianity Melville’s Billy Budd is filled with the question of religion. Melville seems to be stuck on the idea and mystery of Christianity and the thoughts and views around it. He seems reluctant to totally believe the ideas of Christianity yet cannot fully reject the tradition behind it. In Billy Budd, Melville is directly figurative and less clearly dogmatic in his treatment of religion itself. In the story Billy Budd …

…the central issue of a Christian story to the world and its value systems at the time. After reading the story I think that it is difficult to tell whether Melville reserved a stronger condemnation for practical society or for Christianity itself. Perhaps we will never know what side he was trying to prove with this story, Billy Budd. I feel that Melville sided with the side of practical society rather than that of Christianity.