Benito Cereno

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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 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. His actions and thoughts also 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 …show more content…

Delano’s actions are representative of the ideology, but Delano’s actions also convey his own personal convictions. Upon first boarding the ship, Delano perceives the men’s action of polishing hatchets as a “peculiar love in negroes of uniting industry with pastime” (Melville 40). It is a fallacy in reasoning to assume that forced manual labor would be something to love or consider a pastime just because a person is a certain race. Delano acknowledges how it is a peculiar idea to consider those ideas to be truth, but he ignores that fleeting moment of clarity and returns to the ideology he knows as truth. When facing the faults of his ideology, Delano turns away and acts as if he has no idea that there is anything wrong. By choosing to not reject racism, Delano embraces it by choice. Ideology does hold immense power over him, but he chooses to bend his will to coincide with that power rather to reject it and stand for something that would right or different. Even considering that his ideology might have flaws is too much for Delano to bear. The ideology of racism takes away the humanity of the slaves and the accountability of those enslaving them by attributing this idea of loving forced labor to the slaves. Beyond his immediate observation of their work, he considers the group he encounters to have “the raw aspect of unsophisticated Africans” (Melville 40). By using the word “raw”, Delano is …show more content…

The power enacted on him under Althusser’s ideology is escapable through understanding the condition and situation that the ideology has placed him in. However, Delano does not take the chance for to change or consider change. After Don Benito and Delano escape, Delano asked Benito “‘you are save; what has cast such a shadow upon you?” To this, Don Benito replies saying “‘The negro’” (Melville 107). At the moment, Delano is forced to consider the implications of what Don Benito says, but instead, “there was silence, while the moody man sat, slowly and unconsciously gathering his mantle about him, as if it were a pall. There was no more conversation that day” (Melville 107). Delano refuses his opportunity to accept blame and fault in his racisit ideology and falls prey to the racism that surrounds him. The power of ideology is overwhelming to those who are weak in character and integrity, like Delano. A fundamental aspect of Althusser’s ideology is that “what is represented in ideology is therefore not the system of the real relations which govern the existence of individuals, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real relations in which they live” (695). This is significant because it rethinks the idea of ideological power being based just in

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