Despite the countless clues spattered throughout Benito Cereno, I was just as shocked as Captain Delano to eventually find out the truth of the slave rebellion. The novella isn't really set up as a mystery - that is, a story in which the audience knows they are searching for an answer - so I continually took Cereno's explanations as straightforward truths, and rationalized Cereno's odd behavior along with Delano.
Beyond this (Delano's and potentially my own ignorance), I think my 21st century biases played a part in my not suspecting an ulterior plot. A violent slave rebellion in which former slaves are the villains and white Europeans the victims is so far from the acceptable, mainstream plot line that I have a feeling a contemporary retelling would be met with protests and criticism likening it to "Birth of a Nation", and not unjustly.
Though I can certainly see parts of the argument for why Benito is not pro-slavery, such as Babo's clear intelligence, it's personification of slaves as violent villains, especially against the harmless narrator Delano, portrays negative images of South-American slaves so much that I think the plot would be completely rejected by a contemporary audience.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI cannot say I was as surprised as both you and Captain Delano were that the slaves were holding Cereno hostage as part of their rebellion. As you've mentioned, there are clues strewn throughout the piece which forced me to guess that this vessel, the San Dominick, had been overtaken by slaves. I first found it suspicious that Cereno went everywhere with Babo and refuses to meet with Delano privately, without Babo. There are other hints thoughout the piece and the moment I truly figured out what was going on was when Babo cut Cereno's face while shaving Cereno, who looks terrified by the sight of the blood that Babo just drew. After this moment I was waiting for the drama to unfurl. Perhaps my familiarity with various other African American pieces allowed me to infer what would happen in this specific story. That said, I truly enjoyed this piece and Melville's work in this particular piece is an example of a fantastic work of prose.
ReplyDeleteI was definitely suspicious of the slave-master relationship throughout this story, but even more so, I was frustrated that Delano continuously disregarded every sign that something was off. While I of course couldn't predict specifics, I spent more time wondering when Delano was going to to get wise than wondering what exactly had happened between Cereno and the slaves.
ReplyDelete