Benito Cereno

During our in class discussions of Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” there were several interesting points that were brought up regarding the story. Two things that at were brought up in discussion that I found interesting   was regarding Captain Delano and his inability to “read” what was occurring on the San Dominick and whether Babo should be considered the villain of this story. There were several instances in the novel where Benito Cereno and his crew exhibited strange behavior. Delano witnessed such behavior but would dismiss it without questioning it any further. Amongst the various instances one that I thought was interesting occurred when Delano had first boarded the San Dominick. Delano witnesses:

“Three black boys, with two Spanish boys, were sitting together on the hatches, scraping a rude wooden platter, in which some scanty mess had recently been cooked. Suddenly, one of the black boys enraged at a word dropped by one of his white companions, seized the knife, and though called to forbear by one of the oakum- pickers, struck the lad over the head, inflicting a gash from which blood flowed” (Melville 179).

Delano is shocked and questions what he has just witnessed between the black boy and Spanish boy however upon Cereno’s nonchalant response he doesn’t press the situation any further. When I initially read this passage I thought it was interesting because during that era any slave attacking someone that is not of color would be considered a great offense and punished, therefore when Cereno didn’t respond to this or implement any type of punishment for what had occurred to the Spanish boy it seemed very odd. Even Delano states that “had such a thing happened on board the Bachelor’s Delight, instant punishment would have followed” (Melville179), therefore he knew that this behavior was not acceptable but doesn’t choose to regulate the situation himself.  The fact that Delano didn’t press this issue any longer led me to wonder whether he didn’t interfere because this was not his ship and crew? Or did he just not care about what he had seen?  The fact that he accepts Delano’s response as purely a “sport” makes me characterize Delano as naïve because this incident clearly indicates that something is not quite right on the ship.

            After various suspicious incidents occur on board, the truth behind Cereno and his crew’s strange behavior is revealed. To Delano’s surprise the ship has been in control of Babo and the slave’s all along. During class the question of whether Babo should be considered the Hero or Villain of the story was brought up. It was definitely an interesting suggestion because I was not thinking about that while I was reading the story. Once I began to think about it I came to the conclusion that I think Babo should be considered the Hero because although he did manage to take over this ship and had the captain of the ship killed we also have to take into consideration what these slaves were going through. Slaves were abused, tortured, overworked and killed by their masters in the same cruel way that Babo and his treated the crew of the San Dominick. These slaves were trying to find a way out from this forced life so as you can see in the novel that would have not been possible unless they gained control and killed the captain in front of their crew as a way of scaring everyone else from trying to fight back. This tactic of killing an individual in front of an audience is something slave owners would do to their slaves to scare them from trying to escape. Therefore Babo and the rest of the slaves were using tactics that they learned from the people who oppressed them.