Billy Queen Essay Example for Free

Billy Queen Essay â€Å"Under and Alone† by Billy Queen is an interesting and illustrative book that tries to provide an in-depth analysis of an undercover life. The underlying theme of this book is to illustrate the difficulties of the personnel of law enforcement agencies and how they put their life in dangers for the betterment of the society. The ultimate purpose of this book to realize people of the sacrifices that law-enforcement make to keep them secure. Bill queen narrates the moral, social and ethical dilemmas and other related pathos of an undercover agent. He further points out how an undercover agent had to change his identity to achieve his goals and this identity change sometime changes the psychological patterns and habitual formations of the agent and he starts thinking to resemble himself with outlaw personalities and phenomenon. Billy Queen is one such agent who after military service in Veitnam joins the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. He serves in various undercover positions in his career that spans over sixteen years but his entry into the South Californian chapter of the famous American gang Mongols (he calls them as â€Å"a tight-knit collective of crazies, unpredictable and unrepentant badasses) is the most prominent and dangerous part of his life. Mongols is a larger group with twenty chapters all across America with a headcount of 350 indulged in various activities such as murders, drug and arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles etc. in several states. The book does not look into the activities of the Mongol gang only but also provides an insight into the motives of such activities. Billy Queen discloses the fact that the motives for the formation of the gang was not looting and plundering but it was formed by the veterans of WWII who after the end of war was hankering after a life of adventures that could inflate a war lifestyle. Another important aspect of the book is that it presents the psychological conflict in the personality of undercover agents as they have to indulge in activities that they abhor and fight against in their real life. Billy Queen suffers from the same ambivalent personality as he has to perform evil act to win the confidence of the gang. Manifestation of this wickedness and fulfilling the demands of the gang blurs his own identity and changes his thinking and he starts considering himself as Billy St. John. Hew describes that he participated in gang activities life purchasing and selling narcotics, doing arms trafficking etc. but avoided such activities like rape, murder and dope taking at all costs. These activities form the main plot of the story but the most intense and interesting episodes of the story are related to Billy’s effort to thwart the pernicious activities. Billy’s style is intense as his humanity was at stake. The crux of the matter is that he never sacrificed duty at the altar of any hurdles, even his humanity. The duration of Billy’s activities as a undercover agent (almost 28 months) is an important factor that make us realizes the height of Billy’s contribution as he was totally cut off from all the social ties i. e. family, friends, colleagues etc. But he provides another facet of the story that the grave criminal activities, they (members of Mongol) use to share a genuine camaraderie and during his prolonged undercover, he use to enjoy the love and carte of gangsters. He says in this regard that â€Å"I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldnt hesitate to murder Billy Queen. † But he succeeds in escaping from this tough life and with an accomplished mission as finally he triumphs in collecting evidence that dispatched eighteen Mongols to federal prison.