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Interpretation of slavery in colonial america
Slavery in American society
Interpretation of slavery in colonial america
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This indifferent attitude seems to reflect Delano as possibly It is hard to say what Delano’s stance is, but it seems that Melville is posturing Delano in a position that would render him indifferent to slavery and/or abolition.
It is as though Melville is saying that this attitude is just as dangerous as believing that blacks are evil and mean. Like dehumanizing them in any way is wrong. I think this overt patriarchal indulgence is Melville mocking such ignorance among the whites.
I have to disagree with the “caring relationship” between Captain Cereno and Babo. Indeed, it is an “unusually close and caring relationship” meaning it is a little too much so. There seems to be something very menacing and manipulating about Babo’s servitude. I’m not sure that this is indicative of
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The mutiny implements the temporal status of freedom because the Spanish become subdued, and the slaves grant themselves temporary freedom by overtaking Cereno and his crew. At the end of the story the roles are again reversed when the Spanish and Delano’s men recapture the ship, and nslave
Babo and the rest of the rebellious slaves. This is particularly interesting when considering the Fugitive Slave Law and Compromise of 1850 had been interested just five years prior to Melville’s publication of Benito Cereno. A fugitive slave also had a temporal status of freedom depending on what part of America he or she was in, and could gain or lose freedom according to location until the stricter limitations in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 were brought into legislation. Melville opposed slavery throughout his life, but American perceptions of slavery were mixed at this time, which is why Melville uses characters to reinforce the evils of the slave trade.Melville uses Delano’s narrative to tempt the American reader, which reveals how racially blind one may
middle of paper ... ... Although Nat’s expectations were not met, the rebellion injected some sense of slavery and more need for freeing the slaves. In conclusion, this book shows us that slavery is against mankind and all people are equal concerned with the race. Racism has become wide-ranging in many of the countries, mostly in northern Europe and Russia.
Melville interjected a positive feeling into the narrative, White Jacket, by introducing three humanitarians. These included: Mad Jack, Colbrook, and Jack Chase. Each of these characters spoke out against corporal punishment in the narrative; however, the ultimate decision to punish the men remained in the hands of the unforgiving captains at sea. The main character of the novel occurred as White Jacket. Unfortunately, he committed an unwitting offense and was to be subjected to flogging. In his frantic last moments prior to flogging, White Jacket envisioned himself grabbing Captain Claret and flinging them both over the side to the more forgiving sea. Fortunately, humanitarians, Colbrook and Chase, both stepped forward at great risk to themselves and saved White Jacket from humiliation and abuse. White Jacket's desperate attempt to elude punishment conveyed to society the drastic measures needed to induce change. In the end, it remained obvious that Melville likened the ship to a working model of society. He observed that naval discipline was not compatible with democratic ideology. Author Eleanor Simpson stated in her essay, "Melville and the Negro," that Melville attacks all forms of arbitrary government and legalized brutality. Though his immediate target is the military machine as codified in the Articles of War, his whole stance is one of democratic rebellion against the law or act of government, which undermines or simply ignores the dignity and rights of men.
Slave rebellions are the common topic of the two stories. Melville plays with the anxiety whites had of such and Douglass of its possibility to elevate slaves out of their misery. If paraphrased, the end of chapter X in Douglass’s Narrative serves as a perfect illustration of this: Douglass describes his Master Hugh seizing the money Douglass had earned; “not because he [Hugh] earned it, - not because he had any hand in earning it … but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up.” Exchange ‘money’ with ‘liberty’ and Babo’s right to revolution as that “of the grim-visaged pirate upon the high seas”, becomes as right as the white man’s enslavement of blacks. In understanding this, Babo turns into a true hero – albeit a literate one – on a level with Nat Turner, Madison Washington and others. His quest for freedom and his struggle to achieve it deserves to be remembered, just as Douglass is remembered today.
Melville has made Delano out to be a replica of a white male of a nineteenth century new world. One critic discusses this idea by making the claim that Delano, “is seen as representative of New World Man: democratic, compassionate, generous, capable of decisive action, although blind to evil and unable to learn from his experience (Hopkins 682). The important thing to focus on here is that Delano is “blind to evil, and unable to learn from his experience” (Hopkins 682). But why is he blind to evil? Most simply, he is blind to evil because of his own evil tendency to be racist. Yellin makes a suggestion that “racism prevents an educated mind from realizing the obvious” (Yellin ??). To reiterate, for the story, this means Delano is ignorant to the goings on, because of his racist tendency. For the bigger picture, Melville is saying the men of the nineteenth century are racist, and because of that are blind to any sort of uprising, on the part of the slaves. Delano nearly gets insight, when he questions, “Could then Don Benito be any way in complicity with the blacks”? (Melville 1151), His answer, No, “they were too stupid” (Melville
One of the literary elements that Melville uses that convey the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is diction. The author's diction in this short story is very descriptive and is also slightly comical. One of the ways this is used is when the author gently mocks the narrator by having him expose his flaws through his own words. For example, when the narrator talks of John Jacob Astor, a well respected man who complemented him, we find out how full of himself he is and how highly he thinks of himself. "The late John Jacob Astor, a parsonage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first grand point…I will freely add, that I was not insensible to the late John Jacob Astor's good opinion." (Page 122, Paragraph2) Another example of the author's use of diction appears on page 127 in paragraph 2; "At first, Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long famished for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sunlight and by candle-light. I should have been quite delighted with his application, had he been cheerfully industrious. But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically." Here the narrator's description of Bartleby's writing habits in the office, at first, tell us that he is very pleased with his progress and the work he has done but then it tells us that he is not very enthusiastic but...
The betrayal of Jesus serves as an important Biblical allusion in Benito Cereno. In the beginning of this novella, Delano still doubts whether Cereno is dangerous or not. He says, “Or was the Spaniard less hardened than the Jew, who refrained not from supping at the board of him whom the same night he meant to betray?” (70). In this quote, Delano asks himself if Cereno will betray him that night, but also asks if Cereno has more restraint than Judas. Here, Melville uses the betrayal of Jesus to show not only Delano’s ignorance, but to represent the bond that has grown between the two men during their short time together. In Delano’s perspective, Cereno’s strange behavior and their respect towards each other are signs that something is amiss. Delano believes, incorrectly, that the out of place happenings on the ship are due to an imminent betrayal by Cereno. Demonstrated again is Delano’s ignorance as represented by his isolation from the real world. Delano’s limited knowledge of slavery, because he is from the north, causes him to buy into the terrible stereotypes against Africans, which is an evil unto
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano” is a captivating story in which Equiano, the author, reflects on his life from becoming a slave to a freeman during the 19th century. Through his experiences and writing, Equiano paints a vivid picture of the atrocities and cruelties of European slavery. Ultimately through his narrative, Equiano intends to persuade his audience, the British government, to abolish the Atlantic slave trade as well as alert them of the harsh treatment of slaves. He successfully accomplishes his goal by subtly making arguments through the use of character, action, and setting.
“In Babo, Melville creates a character most like himself: a secretly rebellious creator of multi-leveled plots” (Hattenhauer, 8), which is what Delano fails to see. Delano only wanted to accept his image of the slaves, and not see that the slaves were acting strange and not as slaves are expected to act or be treated. Babo, rather than being a mindless animal, was a leader of the plan that deceived Delano. Upon reviewing many ways to analyze this novella, Vamderhaar concludes that “Both ways are inaccurate, inadequate, and overly optimistic, because both overlook the humanity of the Negro with all his capacity for evil and resentment of his enslavement” (Vanderhaar, 186). One of the reasons Delano still ends up “winning’ in the end is because he has the system on his side. The system is against slaves because they agree with slavery, and rebelling was Babo’s only chance to escape. Babo, losing in the end, only loses because Delano has an unfair advantage over him. Delano would have never won against Babo and the rest of the slaves if he were not white. It is not until the very end of the novella that Delano realizes what was wrong from the start. The Governess too, does not realize that the children were against her until the end. When the Governess finally builds up the courage to confront Miles, he tells her that he and Flora arranged the plan to trick her into thinking Flora was out of her bed and see Miles walking outside at night (James, 75). Upon hearing that, the Governess recognizes that it was her who fell into a trap (75). All this time, the Governess assumes that she has power and that she could not be fooled, but in reality, the children tricked her and had power over her, being able to lead her into a trap. Delano sees that he was powerless at the moment that he recognizes Babo’s intentions, “Not captain Delano, but Don
In Benito Cereno, Melville is specific in his depiction and symbolism of each of the main characters. The target group of the essay was the white northerner who is generally against slavery, but does not care to take action. Captain Delano is the perfect character to represent this target group, and the story was told primarily from Delano’s perspective. It is clear throughout the story that Delano is somewhat against slavery, but does believe that blacks are of lesser intelligence and incapable of being in cahoots with Cereno; therefore, he is racist. Melville uses the story as an omen to white northerners that slaves are capable of great things, and that northerners must change their attitude toward the root cause of slavery: racism.
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
Throughout the text, the white colonists are very racist towards the Aboriginals. Even cattle, horses and white women are placed hierarchically higher in society than the black people. In response to this, Astley constructs all narrations to be written through the eyes of the Laffey family, who are respectful towards Aboriginals, hence not racist, and despise societal ideologies. By making the narration of the text show a biased point of view, readers are provoked to think and feel the same way, foregrounding racism shown in the ideologies of early Australian society, and showing that Aboriginals are real people and should receive the same treatment to that given to white people. “They looked human, they had all your features.” (pg 27) There was, however, one section in the text whose narrative point of view was not given by a character in the Laffey family. This instead was given by a voice of an Aboriginal woman, when the Aboriginal children were being taken away from their families. By giving voice to the Aboriginal society, the reader is able to get a glimpse of their point of view on the matter, which once again shows that society was racist, and Aboriginals were treated harshly.
In "Benito Cereno," Captain Delano's extreme naivete and desensitization towards slavery greatly affect his perceptions while aboard the San Dominick. Delano's racial stereotypes, views of master and slave relationships, and benevolent racism mask the true reality of what was occurring on board despite his constant uneasiness and skepticism. At a time when slave revolts were not unusual, the slave conditions aboard the San Dominick should have made more of an impact on Delano.
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.
Herman Melville was seen as a very inspirational, yet controversial writer in the mid-nineteenth century. In many of his writings, he is concerned with the ultimate realities that seem to underline appearances, such as in his short story “Bartleby” (Melville v). In this piece, Melville clearly reveals the depiction of the accentuating theme of dehumanization and victimization within the workplace. The audience can discover this throughout his short story by simply examining the setting, imagery and the characters as powerful allegorical roles. With the use of his structure and these literal elements, Melville evidently portrays the theme of dehumanization and victimization in the workplace.
The film gives an overall accurate picture of these events, though it adds and takes away some pieces of it. The Africans had been captured in Africa, then smuggled into Cuba. At the time the trading of slaves was illegal due to a treaty signed in 1817. The treaty forbid the trading of slaves between Britain and Spain. The mutiny itself occurred in July, 1839 just north of Cuba. La Amistad, the ship they were being carried on, was soon taken captive by them. Those they did not kill were...