While optimism is an admirable trait to have, it can sometimes lead to naivety and, in this case, it almost costs Delano his life because the idea of there being a mutiny on this ship was nonexistent in his mind. Delano shrugs off all of the abnormal happenings and Cereno's uninterested reaction to them, such as when a black boy inflicted a knife wound in a white boys head, muttering "that it was merely the sport of the lad" (16). The American captain fails to put all of the clues together until Cereno attempts to escape the San Dominick and into Delano's ship and Babo leaps after him with a knife. "That moment, across the long-benighted mind of Captain Delano, a flash of revelation swept, illuminating, in unanticipated clearness, his host's whole mysterious demeanor, with every enigmatic event of the day, as well as the entire past voyage of the San Dominick" (57).
Amasa Delano is a virtuous man, as he is referred to as "the good captain Delano" (15), but contralarily, he is racist. He does not dislike the blacks, he actually admires them and their submissiveness, which is condescending on it's own, but he does not see them as fully human. "Captain Delano's nature was not only benign, but familiarly and humorously so" (41). He continuously refers to the blacks as animals, saying that Cereno is the master of his "black sheep" (16) and that Babo is a "shepherd's dog" (7). "Like most men of a good, blithe heart, Captain Delano took to Negroes, not philanthropically, but genially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs" (41). By comparing the blacks to Newfoundland dogs, he is expressing his positive opinion on blacks but in a patronizing manner. Delano's prejudice creates a mindset that blacks simply exist as good-natured, subhuman servants and that Spanish, or whites, are incapable of deception.
Not only does Delano's optimism set him up for failure, but his racism does as well.
Such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville. ... Another example of the origins of evil would be Herman Melville's Benito Cereno. ... Under Benito Cereno's weak leadership they revolted and took over the slave ship. ... Therefore the stories of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein discussed the origins of evil through Rousseau's and Hobb's theories....
The Bachelor's Ignorance In Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno" ignorance appears to be an overwhelming theme. ... Due to the fact this story was written ten years before the Civil War, Melville makes bold statements in "Benito Cereno." ... Delano fails to recognize his self- centeredness until the conclusion of "Benito Cereno". ... "Benito Cereno" is told in third-person narrative form. ... Fortunately, in "Benito Cereno" Melville brought light on the dark subject of slavery....
In his novella, "Benito Cereno"," Herman Melville retraces the story of Amasa Delano, Captain of the Bachelor's Delight, and his encounter with a ship and her crew, both in poor condition. At this point of the story, Captain Delano does not know that the San Dominick, apparently led by Benito Cereno, has in fact undergone the rebellion of the black slaves on board, who now rule the ship. ... The ship is thus the place where "suspicious things " (l.11) happen and seems even haunted: the narrator mentions his "ghostly dread of Don Benito " (l.25), "phantoms " (l.28) and a crew "alleged to h...
Ridley Scott uses color to portray images in his works, similarly to how author Herman Melville employs the color grey in Benito Cereno to show the uncertainty and unclearness throughout Benito Cereno. Herman Melville begins Benito Cereno by describing the setting with everything shrouded under the color of gray which prevents the characters in the story from seeing the truth. ... Greyness when used in Benito Cereno represents the uncertainty in human nature. The climate of grayness in Benito Cereno foreshadows an undercurrent of danger and a warning of threats ahead. ... Melville utilizes a...
Herman Melville was born August, 1, 1819, in New York City. ... Herman Melville worked as a bank clerk before attending the Albany Classical School, and then worked for a short time as a teacher in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. ... Melville's most significant works outside of "Moby-Dick" include the short stories that he wrote during this time period, including "Bartleby the Scrivener" (1853) and "Benito Cereno" (1855). ... His short tales, "Bartleby" and "Benito Cereno," are carefully crafted and profoundly sensitive critiques of his own age that emerge as fables applicable to a later day...
The Piazza Tales, By Herman Melville The Six Lengthy Short Stories The book that I read was The Piazza Tales. These tales were six short stories that consisted of The Piazza,Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The Lightening-rod Man, The Encantadas, and The Bell Tower. ... The Gansevoorts were solid, stable, eminent, prosperous people; the (Herman's Father's side) Melvilles were somewhat less successful materially, possessing an unpredictable. erratic, mercurial strain. ... This was a sense of alienation the Herman Melville felt from his mother. ... The style of Herman Melville is a very unu...
