Melville's White Jacket as a Public Forum on Corporal Punishment Author, Herman Melville used many of his literary works as a public forum for politics. Subsequently, the nineteenth century became a time of great outspokenness among authors who condemned many of society's ills. Authors such as Thoreau, Longfellow, and Emerson all expressed their opposition to these tragedies. Melville wrote openly about slavery, abuse, and many other social injustices. In his novel, White Jacket, Melville wrote against corporal punishment aboard U.S. Navy frigates. He cited many cases of flogging, imprisonment of sailors and other humiliating procedures suffered by naval men at the hands of commanding officers. Unfortunately, corporal punishment was a legal means of punishment as regulated by the Articles of War. Melville inserted a positive feeling into the narrative, White Jacket, by introducing three humanitarians. These included: Mad Jack, Colbrook and Jack Chase. Each of these characters spoke out against corporal punishment in the narrative; however, the final decision to punish the men remained in the hands of the ruthless captains at sea. The main character of the novel introduced himself as White Jacket. Unfortunately, he committed an unknowing crime and was to be subjected to caning. In his frantic final moments before the flogging, White Jacket imagined grabbing Captain Claret and throwing them both overboard into a more forgiving sea. Fortunately, the aid workers, Colbrook and Chase, stepped up at great risk to themselves and saved White Jacket from humiliation and abuse. White Jacket's desperate attempt to evade punishment has given society the drastic measures needed to bring about change. In the end, it was obvious that Melville compared the ship to a functioning model of society. He observed that naval discipline was not compatible with democratic ideology. Author Eleanor Simpson stated in her essay "Melville and the Negro" that Melville attacks all forms of arbitrary government and legalized brutality. Although its immediate target is the military machine as codified in the Articles of War, its entire position is one of democratic rebellion against the law or act of government, which undermines or simply ignores the dignity and rights of men. Melville declared: "He knows the same law that drives him - the same law by which the guilty of the day must suffer that by that same law he too may be judged and condemned at any time;.