Benito Cereno By Herman Melville

All throughout his entire story, Equiano’s use of pathos gave the person reading the text the feeling that slavery had to be taken out of the realm of socially acceptable things. On page 87 Equiano's story states; “This wretched situation was again aggravated by the

Just when the reader had thought it couldn’t get worse for the troubled boy, he aches, “we were soon deprived of even the small comfort of weeping together.” Even after he shares with us that he has been thrown in a sack and basically deprived of his basic human rights, this was a new rock bottom for Equiano. No love, no shelter, no family. It’s the horrible details Equiano writes about that gives the reader mental images of him being torn from his family and village and sold into slavery with his sister in North America and West Indies.

In Herman Melville’s mysterious novella, “Benito Cereno”, Captain Amasa Delano observes, what appears to be, a distressed Spanish slave ship navigating into the harbor of St. Maria. Disregarding the opposition from his crew, Captain Delano leaves his ship, Bachelor's Delight, and approaches the foreign vessel, San Dominick, via a whaleboat. In addition to offering water and provisions to the vessel in distress, Captain Delano encounters—who appears to be in command of the vessel—Don Benito Cereno, and his “faithful” negro servant Babo. Throughout the novella, Captain Delano witnesses many suspicious behaviors from Benito Cereno, Babo, and the other slaves on board. Although Captain Delano has mixed feelings about Benito Cereno, in which he often views him as a “paper captain” who has “little of command but the name”, Captain Delano fails to latch onto his intuition of who is truly in command of the ship until it’s almost too late.

The cruel and harsh treatment of slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth century is something that in today’s millennium a person could not even dream of. Slaves were known to be illiterate; however there are few that had the opportunity to be educated and from them society has a small glimpse into the past. There are two slaves in particular that give people a way to see life through their eyes. Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano were two slaves during those times that were forced into the world of slavery. Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave” and Olaudah Equiano’s “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” are literary pieces that talk about their views, experiences, and ideas in relation to slavery.

For example, Equiano expresses that he is envious of the freedom whites enjoy; the fact that these people were deprived of basic fundamental rights clearly highlights just how miserable life was for the victims. He then reveals, “Every circumstance [he] met with, served only to render [his] state more painful, and heightened [his] apprehensions,” Equiano’s intensified trepidation evinces his lack of hope that life could get better, “and [his] opinion of the cruelty of the whites” enhances as well (Equiano 45).

Love is an unexplainable emotion that exceeds the boundaries of all. In Earnest Hemingway 's "A Farewell to Arms" two character 's share a climactic endeavor through pain and suffrage finding their way back to each other no matter what. Hemingway expresses love as a necessity in one 's life, and even through gruesome terror and war it can never be broken. The story resonates with it 's readers on a personal and realistic level, being that it is written with some truth behind it; Hemingway 's style of writing portrays the definition of unexpected reality.

A reading of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass shows the cruel treatment of slaves in the South. Douglass emphasizes the dehumanization aspect of slavery – towards both master and slave – throughout his narrative in order to persuade his readers that slavery was a degrading practice. These views were inspired by The Columbian Orator, a collection of political essays, poems and dialogues which enabled him to develop and articulate the wrongness of slavery, both philosophically and politically. The Narrative shows how white slaveholders preserve slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant.

Early American Literature reflects many conflicting differences in the presentation of slavery during that time period. Through the two chosen texts, the reader is presented with two different perspectives of slavery; Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a look at a slave’s life through the eyes if a slave while Benito Cereno showcases the tale of a slave uprising from the viewpoint of the slave owner.. Benito Cereno’s work shows the stereotypical attitude towards African-American slaves and the immorality of that outlook according to Douglass’s narrative. Cereno portrays the typical white slave owner of his time, while Douglass’ narrative shows the thoughts of the slaves. The two stories together show that white Americans are oblivious to the ramifications and overall effects of slavery. These texts assist a moralistic purpose in trying to open up America’s eyes to the true nature of slavery by revealing it’s inhumanity and depicting the cruelty that was allowed.

Captain Amasa Delano is an interesting embodiment of white complacency about slavery and it's perpetuation. Delano is a human metaphor for white sentiment of the time. His deepest sensibilities of order and hierarchy make it impossible for him to see the realities of slavery. Delano's blindness to the mutiny is a metaphor for his blindness to the moral depravity of slavery. The examination of Captain Delano's views of nature, beauty, and humanity, allow us to see his often confusing system of hierarchical order which cripples his ability to see the mutiny and the injustice of slavery.

main relationship demonstrating human solidarity and brotherhood is the one between Ishmael and Queequeg, a white man and a tattooed dark skinned man of the South Seas. In the years before the Civil War, interracial friendship was a daring theme. Melville uses this pairing to bring out some comic relief and to contrast ideas of civilization, but he does give Queequeg dignity and treats the friendship seriously.
Queequeg calls it a “marriage” when they smoke the pipe together and vow to share both hardships and material goods. Ishmael says, “I felt melting in me. No more splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage had redeemed it” . This

The ignorance of Captain Delano in Benito Cereno can be accredited to his racist convictions that guide his perception of the ship’s perilous situation. However, is Delano at fault for his racism? When rethinking the racism in Benito Cereno under the context of Althusser’s theories on ideology, racism is an ideology forcibly implemented on the subject through the social institution of slavery. Delano’s actions and thoughts throughout Benito Cereno prove that his racism is a result of a socially imposed ideology and challenge the modern ideals of racism that place the blame for racist attitudes entirely on the racist subject. Delano is the subject of a racist ideology and has been forced into that ideology through the social apparatus of slavery

Captain Delano is shown as a bit of dense character for his inability to see the truth of what happened on the San Dominick. When he meets Babo he is amused at how well he takes care of his master, Captain Cereno, he stays along side him linked by the arm. He even thinks to himself how great it is to have such slave that appears to be more of a friend or companion than a manservant ( Nixon 369). While aboard there are many things that Captain Delano sees which rise his suspicion, however he chooses to disregard or forget them as the story progresses. He sees a young slave boy hitting another young Spanish boy, to which he tells Captain Cereño hoping to get him to do something about the situation, but Captain Cereño dismisses the incident.(9, left column) In return Captain Delano also dismisses the incident and continues on with Captain Cereño. He gives all his trust to Captain Cereno, because to his belief and understanding

Douglass gives detailed anecdotes of his and others experience with the institution of slavery to reveal the hidden horrors. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. He analyzes the story of his wife’s cousin’s death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderer’s freedom. He states, “The offence for which this girl was thus murdered was this: She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried.” This anecdote, among many others, is helpful in persuading the reader to understand the severity of rule slaveholders hold above their slaves. This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily.

Food for the whalers was not as appetizing, many of the food that was described in the beginning of the story consist mainly of biscuits. The real life whale ships included salted meat, dray tea, coffee, sugar, and biscuits. The hard work of the whalers gave them a big appetite and would eat anything that was available. Sea horse was something that is also mention in the story, it is mainly heavily salted pork, beef, and horse. When the doctor and the narrator approach the ship, they gave them a bag that "turned out to be well filled with sweet cubes of salt beef and pork and a famous sailors' pudding, what they call "duff", made of flour and water, and the consistence of an underdone brick" (Melville 160). The food that was in the bad is

"Rappaccini's Daughter" is a short story story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story revolves around four characters.In this story, a young student named Giovanni moves to a new place called Padua for his studies. He then finds a home for himself, under the roof of landlady Lisabetta. While taking a tour of the apartment, while talking about the sun from his native place he encounters a beautiful garden from his window. The land lady tells him that the garden belongs to a scientist called Rappacccini. All of a sudden he catches a sight of the scientist culturing his garden. When looking, he also catches the sight of a beautiful girl who's name was Beatrice. For his surprise, she treats the flowers from garden like her sister closely and