Benito Cereno and American Characteristic

The subject of slavery in the early 1700s had the potential to elicit an array of opinions depending upon the race, gender, and political role of the individual in question. Like the majority of white land-holding men who owned slaves, William Byrd viewed the treatment of Africans as that consistent with livestock: slaves were to do the work they were assigned and give in to every whim of their masters for fear of being severely punished. Olaudah Equiano provides a contrast in opinion to this widely accepted viewpoint. By humanizing Africans and detailing the intimate emotions experienced by them, Equiano implicitly argues against the attitudes of typical slave owners.

While Delany was walking back to his seat after winning an award for “Aye, and Gomorrrah” fellow writer Isaac Asimov pulled him aside and jokingly said,”You know, Chip, we only voted you those awards because you're negro”(18). Delany, although realizing that Asimov was using satire to say that the color of his skin had no part in the voting decision. Realized that unintentionally or not, Asimov was saying that no matter Delany's achievements he will always be “Negro”. This fits in to Delany’s explanation of what systematic racism does, it acclimates people of color to be comfortable with the isolation of races. Because Delany is a black writer he will foremost be know as a black writer before anything else, and will always be grouped in that category. This well intentioned joke fuels the system that is racism.

It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason” (10). He puts a lot of emphasis on the ideas that slaves need to be tricked into accepting their enslavement. Since no person in his right mind would ever accept such a condition, it is the intent for the master’s to destroy the slave’s minds. Douglass expresses how slaves aren’t the only victims and how it corrupts all of those who are involved in

In his essay to the 1782 society, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur portrays colonial America. While using a confident tone, Crevecoeur discusses in great splendor the uniqueness of the American society and the opportunities the country holds. He writes to purposefully draw individuals, particularly those within European countries, to the American society through his optimism. He does this effectively by using strong metaphors, selective word choice, and adjusting the syntax of the writing.

Olaudah Equiano 's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, is the story of the eponymous real-life character, Olaudah Equiano, his life, trials, tribulations and journey from slavery at an early age to freedom. For Equiano, it seems that slavery is almost a metaphysical phenomenon. His entire life is essentially characterized by the different experiences relating slavery, from Africa to the Middle Passage to plantation life in the West Indies and United States. Equiano’s views on slavery are tough to articulate and truly complex. Throughout the novel he makes reference to different ‘degrees of slavery,’ at times condemning the practice, and at other times contradicting

From the inception of this narrative, the reader learns quickly how Equiano plans to escape the bondage of slavery. Part of the dehumanizing nature of slavery is to strip the slaves of their natural identity and substitute it with a falsehood that can be controlled and render them powerless. His autobiography shows us a slave who discovers how to obtain his freedom through his own spiritual empowerment. In Equiano’s introductory quote, his engagement with the reader expresses his profound confidence in God. He attests to his faith with Bible verses from the book of Isaiah. One reads

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.

Equiano’s luck soon shifted when he was once again kidnapped and sold as a slave, this time he would have to endure the notoriously dreadful journey across the sea to America. Knowing that this was a pivotal point in his life and that he would become a gudgeon to the harshness of slavery, Equiano attempted to prepare himself for what lay ahead. However, the sight of the inhumane acts he witnessed on the African coast, while being transported, were new to Equiano and instilled fear into his consciousness.

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.

Luis Carlos Najera Ruiz Mrs. Cummings English II 3 December 2014 REA 2 - Revision 2 In "democracy", W.R. Rodriguez plays with capitalization, punctuation, and syntax to intentionally make this piece harder to understand, set the piece apart from normal, and to re-emphasize a great problem with democracies. While this style of writing makes the piece harder to understand, the impact of the piece becomes much greater since it takes more work to find its meaning. Rodriguez wrote this to convey that Americans are greedy, war-thirsty, and destructive people. The author did this by making the piece hard to understand, therefore he conveys that American traditions are deviant from the normal and difficult to understand. With difficult to understand syntax and the repetition of the phrase "as it had become

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.

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

Benito Cereno is told in a third person limited point of view. The unreliable and naive Captain Delano gets in the minds of his readers. The crew was outnumbered, but yet gave the "negros" responsibilities that the crew should have had.  ". . . six blacks; each with a rusty hatchet in his hand" (Melville 40). A slave ship with whites being highly outnumbered doing their chores should had been odd. Yet e makes numerous excuses for the odd things he sees upon the ship, by doing so he convinces the reader to dismiss the red flags. The story being told through Captain Delano’s point of view manipulates the reader in to seeing only what he sees. It is not until the reader gets to the deposition at the end of the story that the reader realizes they had been deceived. That the story they had been told was as if it had been sugar coated. The factual account for what actually happens is not what the story portrays. Captain Delano’s personality misleads the reader into being fooled that the slaves are able to roam about a ship freely yet still be under the order of the captain. In addition to captivating you into Delano’s thought process Melville also indirectly insults blacks. Making the character unable to suspect the slaves of being smart enough to do such a thing as over taking the ship. Delano himself stated on page 65 that he felt the slaves were "too stupid" to think of such an elaborate plan against him (Melville).

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

Delano’s trusting nature is only one reason that the slave revolt that is actually occurring on the ship is even working, if only for a short amount of time. He is constantly given examples that cause suspicion to arise, though he never takes on the suspicions as anything more than what they were. Some he even attests to Cereno’s poor leadership and control of the ship. Though, with the