benito cereno

A detailed Summary of benito cereno

Benito Cereno is a novella by the highly regarded writer Herman Melville. Upon reading his story it becomes obvious that the two main characters, Don Benito Cereno and Captain Delano, were somewhat similar in character. Their most obvious similarity was the bias they both had towards the intelligence level of the slaves. However, the slaves prove to outsmart the two men and therefore are superior in intelligence.

Delano's naivete is common of the time period. That period of history was a time when whites truly thought of themselves to be the dominant race. Even though this stupidity still exists in the prejudice minds of some today, in the past whites thought that people of color were incapable of being intelligent. But none the less, being an intelligent person and simply having the sense to try and save your own life are two different things entirely, which is why the view of whites at this time seems so ignorant. The downfall of Captain Delano occurs because he seems to be totally blind as to the signs of mutiny that appear so clear to the reader. In fact, his seeming goodness and benevolence is actually a mask to cover racism, stupidity, and his own superiority complex.

As the story begins Captain Delano sees a shi

Throughout the story Don Benito shows signs of the truth behind his story. At first he seems like the dominant commander and master of his ship. He also seems like a harsh master to his slaves. At first the reader gets the impression that Benito put the slaves up to the conspiracy. When in reality the negros made Benito act like he had everything in control. Benito was actually a puppet being used by the slaves to keep the masquerade flowing smoothly. This is evident when Delano starts to question Benito about the story he told, and Babo, Benito's slave, changes the atmosphere by insisting that Benito needed a shave. This is the first sign of the deceitful nature of slaves. Deceitfulness, although not a sign of high morality, is one that takes a great deal of intelligence. As he is being shaved Benito becomes very nervous as Babo comes close to his neck with the razor. In fact Benito does actually get cut, which foreshadows the danger ahead. In order to keep the ruse going Babo actually cuts himself on the cheek shortly after and proceeds to wail and make a big fuss in order to appear to Delano as though he had been reprimanded by Benito. Then Babo goes on carefully choosing his words around Delano. He never uses the word "I," instead he refers to himself in the third person so as to not give himself an identity. This further solidifies Delano's own sense of "I." This was common behavior at the time. Slaves were not taught to have a sense of self, for if they did they might be inclined to stand up for themselves and revolt. But the fact that Babo recognizes this and uses it to his advantage is further proof that the slaves on board were very intelligent and knew exactly what they were doing.

When Captain De

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Approximate Word count = 1172
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English