Today's lesson focused on Melville's narrative technique -digression and fustian diction. We noted how the tale of Billy Budd is related by a narrator who apparently lacks any personal knowledge or reliable source. Yet, he insists his tale is truthful as evidenced by his digressions that mirror a truthful story. Joshua did well in recognizing how the fictional narrator crates ethos by his pompous diction and ongoing historical and biblical allusions. We last studied Melville's technique of direct characterization of Capt.Vere by identifying words and phrases that directly describe Capt. Vere and reveal the combating forces of tradition /realism and humanist impulses within his personality .We last reviewed Joshua's test rewrite based on our recent class instruction which showed substantial improvement. I elaborated on ideas for a conclusion.