Who Is Willie Keith's Character In The Caine Mutiny

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In the world, many human beings change throughout their lives by going through difficulties and obstacles which they have to face to gain their goals.“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” (Napoleon hill). This quotation relates to the story, because of the struggle and effort that Willie had to go through to simply gain his goals in his life and never gave up in any situation. Willie Keith is the main character in the novel “The Caine Mutiny” by Herman Wouk, in which he is described as a young chubby man physically, has no strong emotions toward anything and was not responsible but more dependent on his parents to carry him through his life. He is also form a high class family that is really wealthy and successful…show more content…
“Willie is excited to finally be part of the war. At 3:30, he is awakened by the alarm calling for general stations and takes over the watch from Harding.”(Wouk 342). However, as soon as the war began he was frozen on one spot of the ship by the noises of the explosions and was shocked by seeing the flashes on the beach. He is sent down to a safer place on the ship since he was not capable to help the crew, as he reached there he helped himself some ice cream with chocolate syrup and thought that that will relax him but that was not the case. He could still hear the war going on and even hear people scream in pain and as he went on the surface of the ship he was thrill by the death body on the ship. When everything finished Willie could feel an uncomfortable feeling and a sad and emotion going through his body, he knew war was never something to get excited about. “War is a business in which a lot of people watch a few people get killed and are damn glad it wasn’t them.” (Wouk 355). His second roommate Keefer told him to relax and was okay to have emotions like Willie after seeing such thing for the first time. After this event Willie Keith develops his emotions and knows what matters to him. Close to the end of the novel he declares a speech about about the decommissioning ceremony, “Every hour spent on “The Caine” was a great hour in all our lives-if you don’t think so now you will later on, more and more.” (522). This not only shows the change that came in his life but also the emotion toward what matters to him, “The Caine”. All this experience in his journey leads him to leads him to be a credible

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