`` Benito Cereno `` : The Skill Of Imitation

Practically everyone in the story has a hidden agenda for his or her actions. The protagonist, a 22-year-old named Helga, was a teacher at an institute of higher learning called Naxos where the true agenda was not education but instead was teaching Blacks their accepted status in life—lower than that of Whites. She became convinced that she needed to leave Naxos after hearing a speech from a visiting white preacher whose remarks she found offensive. The preacher stated that if everyone acted like those from Naxos “there would be no race problem, because Naxos Negros knew what was expected of them” because they “knew enough to stay in their places” (Larsen 1724). At the beginning of the story, the reader would feel sympathy towards the workers at Naxos, who truly believed they were preparing the students for better lives and sympathy for Helga who tried to convince the new principle, Dr. Anderson, as to the true state of affairs. Helga failed to realize, however, that Dr. Anderson was aware of the situation at Naxos but felt that for change to occur there needed to be “more people like you, people with a sense of values, and proportion, an appreciation of the rarer things of life” (Larsen 1735). Helga mistakenly became offended at Dr. Anderson’s compliment by calling her “a lady” with “dignity and breeding” because of her belief that being able to trace one’s ancestry was more important that one’s actions (Larsen 1735).

The true character of one is only seen when one's opinions are put to the test. Similarly, in “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson proves how characters can change when they are put through situations that do not agree with their personal preferences. Throughout the text, the duality of human nature can be identified through Mrs. Hutchinson's cowardice after the lottery is chosen, her will to betray her own family due to selfish motives, and Mrs. Delacroix's change of character after Mrs. Hutchinson is selected for the stoning. Commonly, there are many aspects that are taken into account when the formation of opinions of occurs, that is why even the slightest change can easily affect of the human brain makes a decision.

Prejudice can manifest itself in many different ways, sometimes in the least likely of them. We often assume that the people we place our trust and faith in are free of prejudice, but this is not always true. We can observe this in real life and literature, as seen through the short story “The Stolen Party” by Liliana Heker. This story, about a young girl learning to understand the nature of prejudice and trust, introduces an important theme; that when we encounter prejudice, we should fight for what we believe. This theme is explored through Rosaura’s interaction with her mother, Luciana’s cousin and Senora Ines. These three characters lead Rosaura to question her beliefs, but nonetheless encourage her to to challenge any prejudice directed

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.

This could also be viewed as the repetition of a common occurrence in the book: the degradation of black people. Delano calls Babo a, “poor fellow”; this is somewhat demeaning, as it is an expression of pity. Pity, although it can derive from good intentions, ultimately derives from the belief that another is in an inferior state than the person that pities them. However, this shows that Delano feels sorry for Babo, indicating that he sees that slavery as a bad institution.

Characters are often unsatisfied with their the place they find themselves in society. Discontent is what drives them to gain ambition in their ability to radically change their situation to one that is most favorable in their perspective. These changes differ from character to character, including alterations in their moral conduct, mental capability, or in something as easy as his way of dress. The ambition to change rests deep within the character’s soul, regardless of how simple their actions may be. Fathoming a false image of oneself not only damages the individual, but creates trouble for the people around them, such as family and loved ones.

Crooks is a good example that discrimination shapes a person's life. Lennie had come into the barn and was in Crooks door way and crooks was uncomfortable due to Crooks being a negro and is used to people leaving him alone. “‘Come on in and set a while,’ Crooks aid ‘’long as you won't get out and leave

A few pages in, the book shares the cringeworthy detail that on the side of the San Dominick “rudely painted or chalked, as in sailor freak, along the forward side of a sort of pedestal below the canvas, was the sentence, SEGUID VUESTRO JEFE (“follow your leader”)” (40), a three-word sentence that speaks volumes. Melville shared the detail very early on in the text in order to foreshadow and to parallel what the sentence signifies; follow your leader at first glance seems nothing out of the ordinary given that it is a ship transporting slaves, however the sentence mimicking a slave’s life given that both represent doom. The sentence implies as both advice and a threat. Written by slaves, the sentence warns their former captors that if they do not do as they are told they will end up dead, similarly to their former Captain Aranda (follow your leader Babo vs. follow your leader Aranda). Because Babo had never been in a position of power and always had to do everything, he became very knowledgeable in many aspects in contrary to those in power who were too busy commanding others what must be done. All three accounts that make up the narrative depict Babo as some type of

Delano's first description of Babo compares him to a "shepherd's dog." (p. 41) Not only did Delano compare him to something that was not human, but the assertion that Babo was a "shepherd's dog" is important to understanding Delano's obsession with hierarchy and possession. Delano must understand everything in terms of its relationships and its place in his hierarchy. Delano describes the San Dominick as "a Spanish merchantman of the first class, carrying Negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight." His first reaction to the fact that there were blacks on the San Dominick was to classify the blacks as "valuable freight." He describes the black mothers as "Unsophisticated as leopardesses; loving as doves.." (p. 63) After Captain Delano discovers that the blacks have mutinied, they are no longer dogs but wolves: "Exhausted, the blacks now fought in despair.

The social hierarchy of the ship is strikingly similar to the social hierarchy of America in the late 1840’s into the 1850’s. Ahab, a white male, was the captain over numerous immigrants, natives, and African Americans on this ship. Now, what he should have been doing was keeping the crew in mind when making decisions, but instead he was consumed and focused on overtaking the White Whale. To Abraham Lincoln this White Whale was preserving the Union. Lincoln had a moral problem with slavery, but he was also prepared to do anything to preserve the Union. He once said, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it,” (Save the Union). This is exactly how Ahab felt; Ahab was prepared for his entire crew to accompany him to “all the ends of the earth,” (Melville 100; ch. 27). Ahab was indifferent about the actual outcome of his crew as long as his goals were met, which is very similar to Lincoln’s view of slavery: as long as the goal is met, the citizens, or crew, doesn’t matter.

Equiano described the cruelty of the crew who kept watch of the Africans. If an African refused to eat, they received an hour of whipping or, even if one preferred death to being a slave, they were brutally punished. Equiano even witnessed the crew hurting one another, to the point where some died and had to be thrown overboard into the sea. A few of the Africans could no longer handle the mistreatment of being a slave and jumped overboard in attempt of suicide. Some succeeded, but those who did not succeed were lifted back on board and beaten unmercifully. At some point, most of the Africans were placed in the basement of the ship and had to endure one another’s stench. There was lack of health assistance and they were not allowed to properly excuse themselves to use the restroom. Because there was lack of fresh air and they had to stay in the basement for days at a time, many of the Africans got sick (Equiano 58). Equiano pondered why the white men treated their slaves so poorly, because slaves in Africa were never treated so inhumane.

A major example of the grayness in this story is in this excerpt: "The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved lead that has cooled and set in the smelter 's mould. The sky seemed a gray surtout. Flights of troubled gray fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled gray vapors among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters, as swallows over meadows before storms (Melville)." Captain Delano believed that blacks were kind-hearted and humble people and may have had good intentions, but he still found nothing wrong with the slaves aboard the San Dominick. He even thought Babo as an ideal servant for Captain Cereno, saying he was submissive, yet happy (Richards). Delano may have good thoughts about the slaves he still believes nothing is wrong with the idea of them and that kind of thinking settles more on the bad side of things. While Benito Cereno and Babo on the other hand are what really create the gray in the story. Benito Cereno was a captain of a slave ship, so there was no question that he was in favor of slavery also considering that he had a personal slave servant. Babo was a slave on this ship, he was enslaved, like all the other slaves, for no reason other than that the whites thought they

He argues that Melville wrote a moral tale, not an abolitionist story. At the end of the essay, Schiffman contradicts himself by proclaiming that Babo's head being "unabashed" as Benito Cereno, the slave trader, "follow[s] his leader" is an indictment of slavery.

The book’s character’s main problem is finding individuality in racism. For the duration of the book, the narrator is constantly fighting racism and stereotypes. Ellison put many examples in the book to help show the character’s fight to be seen equal. Ellison shows that, through the character himself, that you can not tell people who to be. However, Ellison throws curves at the narrator that challenges

    At first, the narrator cannot grasp that his grandfather was fighting against oppression in his work he was compliant to white men. But as he progresses as a student the denials of the system become more clear it is not clear if white men wish for him to advance or not. The narrator’s  worldview has become more