Billy Budd Famous author E.B. White once offered this quote, "Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without delays: don't write about Man, write about a man." Although Herman Melville was neither young or inexperienced, in Billy Budd he chose to write not about Man, but about one particularly honest and handsome sailor named Billy Budd. Not only does Melville's exploration of Billy's life, character, and trials lead the reader to question the inevitable moral dilemma that is produced; but furthermore and more symbolically important is Melville's illusionary comparisons of Billy Budd to the Christ figure whi