Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were perfect. They were innocent and ignorant, yet perfect, so they were allowed to abide in the presence of God. Once they partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, however, they immediately became unclean as well as mortal. In Billy Budd, the author, Herman Melville, presents a question that stems directly from this original sin of our first parents: Is it better to …showed first 75 words of 1333 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1333 total…boom. To them a chip of it was as a piece of the Cross'(87). The legend of Billy's innocence will not die, and it changes the lives of the sailors forever. I believe Melville is saying that true goodness, aspersed by a Satanic Claggart, and doomed to death by a perplexed but upright Vere, even dead, is better than all the wisdom and experience of the world because it exists after death, and therefore triumphs.