The Caine Mutiny
From Willie to William
The novel, The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk, describes the events leading up to and following a mutiny onboard a minesweeper captained by an incompetent and cowardly tyrant, Captain Queeg. The main character is Willie Keith, a rich New Yorker, who matures tremendously as he witnesses and experiences events that take place aboard the USS Caine. At the beginning of the novel, Willie is presented as a hopeless mama?s boy who will have to be coddled through life (Wouk 64). By the end of the book ?He had risen from his fumbling, incompetent beginnings as Midshipman Keith to the command of a United States warship? (519). Although the title of the book suggest that the mutiny is the climax, upon reading the book one discovers that the real climax of the story is the development of William Keith into a man.
?Willie was not angry at Hitler nor even at the Japanese, [?] the enemy in this operation lay not before him, but behind. Furnald Hall was sanctuary from the United States Army? (4). Although the Navy makes a man of Willie, his initial motives for joining the Navy are
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