Sometimes it takes an event in one's life to
change a person. In Herman Wouk's The
Caine Mutiny, it took the navy to change the life of Willie Keith.
Before Willie joined the navy he was living the
easy life. His mother came from a
wealthy family so Willie had no problems financially. He never really took anything seriously. He didn't even take Princeton seriously. "But his real career at Princeton had
consisted of playing the piano and inventing bright little songs for parties
and shows."
Willie just took
everything he had for granted. When he
graduated from Princeton he probably could have gotten a pretty good job or
gone on to earn his master's degree.
Instead, he elected to become a piano player in a cocktail lounge. "He was not paid much. The fee was, in fact, the smallest permitted
by the musicians union for a piano player.
Willie didn't really care, so long as fifty-dollar bills flowed from his
mother." That was his life before
the navy. In the navy, all of that
changed.
Once in the navy he learned that he couldn't
really rely on his mother for everything.
He was still careless and naïve about some things but he did learn that
he was on his own. At Furnand Hall he
had received 48 demerits and was almost expelled. Willie then had to push himself to be on top
of everything. The 48 demerits were not
just going to go away and he couldn't have his mother do something about it. Willie had to be the one to get himself out
of the mess he had created. Even when
his father came to tell Willie that he could probably get him transferred to
the army Willie said, "Will you do me a favor, Dad?....Tell Mom, as nicely
as you can, to call off Uncle Lloyd."
His Uncle Lloyd was in the army and could have gotten Willie transferred
but Willie decided to say with the navy.
Little by little he was learning to become more dependent on himself,
instead of dependent on his mother.
When Willie finally got on board The Caine he
was given the job of decoding messages.
There was one time when he forgot to decode a dispatch and left it in
his pants for three days. Because of
that incident Willie did not get a very good fitness report and was put in hack
although DeVriess had given him permission to attend the admiral's party. After his meeting with DeVriess he had
received a Bible from his father. His
father told him to read Ecclesiastes 9:10, it read, "Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grove, whither thou goest." After reading that Willie decided to stay on
board the ship and not go to the admiral's party. Here was another chance to escape from the
navy yet Willie stayed with it.
Nearing the end of the book, Willie had worked
his way up to become the Executive Officer.
When the kamikaze plane hit The Caine, Willie did not panic. He was able to take control of the situation. While some of the crew are abandoning ship
Willie says,
Now all hands, this is the executive officer. I ask you not to abandon ship.
I've had no damage reports from any space but
the after fireroom. The
noise you heard was some ready ammunition
popping on the galley deck-
house.
Things look pretty bad there for a minute. The captain gave
permission to abandon but he also gave
permission for volunteers to stay
aboard and try to save the ship. ....If we abandon it we'll all get dumped
into the personnel pool in Okinawa. If we stick with it we'll probably pull
an overhaul in the States. Stay with the ship.
Willie could have
never stayed so calm if it hadn't been for his navy training. When we first met him he was living the easy
life and waiting for his mother to give him fifty-dollar bills. Now, Willie has learned how to take responsibility
for his actions.
As we have seen, Willie's experiences with the
navy changed him to be a better person.
The 48 demerits and the forgotten dispatch were the steps he had to take
to become the officer that was able to take control of a situation. His encounter with the navy changed him from
a boy to a man.
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