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Benito Cereno

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Herman Melville writes “Benito Cereno” in third person, but also reveals the inner thoughts of all the characters to get the readers a clearer understanding of the story’s plot. This type of point of view serves as an advantage because it illustrates how different characters’ emotional grow and react to certain events. It makes the storyline more versatile especially since “Benito Cereno,” is a deep, complex story. The quote refers back to the scene where Babo uses a razor for Don Benito’s shave. Babo cuts Don Benito and makes it seem as if his actions are an accident; however, Babo intentionally does so. The shaving scene of Babo and Don Benito represents more than a mere act of cruelty that Babo commits; it grasps the central themes of slavery …show more content…
It is clear that Hermon Melville strongly wants to bring more awareness to slavery through this particular scene. He paints this peculiar event as a metaphor to share the ugly truth about slavery in real life. Melville uses a perspective from Captain Delano to delve deeper into the impacts of slavery. Captain Delano wonders, “Ah, this slavery breeds ugly passions in man,” (218). The consequences of slavery are so severe that it leads to nonstop continuous rebellions between those who are enslaved versus those who are not. Slave revolts would not happen to begin with if slavery did not exist. Since slavery has been alive for many years and has existed even before race was even born, slaves became overwhelmed and felt unjust. Delano is trying to express how slavery opens up a door full of angered, trapped slaves waiting to be free. With these attitudes, the slaves will lash out and take notions in their own hand in order to fight for their own rights and to demand for equality. Since the free men believe that slaves should remain as slaves, they will fight to keep their power and their high status. This quote signifies how the war of keeping this hierarchal order is never ending and will force both ends to commit actions that be …show more content…
In this situation, one is able to recognize Delano’s true feelings because the writing style is not so limited to one character’s feelings and actions. The following line, the narrator writes, “he was about to speak in sympathy to the negro, but with a timid reluctance he now re-entered the cuddy,” (218). The fact that Delano feels with “timid reluctance” towards Babo suggests that Delano might be slowly catching onto what is actually happening on the boat. Although Delano sees slaves as unequal, he still feels a bit intimidated by Babo. Babo already creates somewhat of a persona that convinces Delano to feel apprehensive and hesitant to get back on the boat. It raises the question that even though the Spanish holds the power, it might be possible that this scene serves as a foreshadow that Babo and the slaves are actually the ones in control. If Delano actually believes that he is higher in status, he would have no need to feel frightened to re-enter the room. Though he starts suspecting the truth about the ship, he always dismisses his thoughts in the end or distracts himself with another event happening on the ship. He does not realize and fails to admit that the roles are reversed. Moreover, this entire encounter with the Benito, Babo, and the crewmembers acts as a performance to Captain Delano. Benito, who already knows what is going on in the ship,

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