Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville are similar because they both have pessimistic views of humanity. Billy Budd is a story about a young sailor named Billy, who doesn't fit the normal sailor stereotype. Officer Claggart continually picks him on because of his innocence and ignorance. To make matters worse, one of the corporals tells Claggart that Billy Budd was ridiculing him. Claggart takes offense at this lie and begins to watch Billy vigilantly. When Billy …showed first 75 words of 1346 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1346 total…jealous, and just being crazy. No one will really ever know what was wrong with Claggart, if he honestly was extremely jealous of Billy, or just mentally insane.         The authors of "The Minister's Black Veil," and Billy Budd are similar because they both have negative views about humanity. The author of Billy Budd, Herman Melville, is more pessimistic than Nathaniel Hawthorne though. Through reading and analyzing these two stories, one can easily understand the differences.