Willie Keith: A Life Changed
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 naive 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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