Captain Amasa Delano is an interesting personification of white contentment about slavery and it's endurance. Delano is a human metaphor for white sentimentality of the time. His deepest susceptibilities of order and hierarchy make it impossible for him to see the realities of slavery. Delano's blindness to the rebellion is a metaphor for his blindness to the moral immorality 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.
After Delano believes that Benito Cereno cut his faithful slave on the cheek for shaving him improperly, Delano exclaims: "slavery breeds ugly
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Delano does think the relationship is beautiful, but he thinks it is beautiful because it presents a "spectacle of fidelity." The OED defines fidelity as "The quality of being faithful; faithfulness, loyalty, unswerving allegiance to a person, party, bond, etc." (OED) This quality is an integral part of Captain Delano's ideal system of order where the underlings are happy and grateful. Nothing could give Delano greater confidence in his system of order than the happiness of the lower class. Indeed the other reason he finds his perceived relationship of Babo and Benito so "beautiful" is just that: it presents a "spectacle …show more content…
63)
There is room in the captain's perspective for beauty and appreciation of those things he deems lower than himself, but it is never the abstract enjoyment of something for it's own qualities. His enjoyment comes from realizing that all is as it should be, that there is a manifestation of order in a relationship, in this case the relationship of a child needing its mother (yet another hierarchical relationship.)
Captain Delano's attitude towards his slaves could be called humane, but not human or humanitarian. He classified them with animals, and talked about them as if they were a wildlife documentary. He put arbitrary values on them, and Babo in particular whom he named a sum for. (p. 60-61) We see Delano's attitude towards blacks concentrated in his comment on Babo's conduct.
Marking the noisy indocility of the blacks in general, as well as what seemed the sullen inefficiency of the whites, it was not without humane satisfaction that Captain Delano witnessed the steady good conduct of Babo. (p.
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
The article I read was “Weight Loss at Any Cost” by James Sanborn. Sanborn’s intended audience was the Marine Corps Times where he published the article in October 2010. He wanted to reach the Marine Corps and Marines as his intended audience. Stanborn used the Corps own words against them quoting them saying “Marines come in all shapes and sizes.” This statement is powerful and has an impact; making the Corps look hypocritical because of the tightened standards which ultimately want Marines to be the same size and shape. Despite how physically capable a Marine is if they don’t meet the standards they risk losing their career. In the past there was leniency shown to Marines who didn’t have the body-fat standards
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
He describes the ways in which he was considered fortunate amongst other slaves. Equiano confessed that all of his masters were “worthy and humane”, they treated him right and even gave him the gift of literacy and religion (709). He compares his experience to the experience of other less fortunate individuals, and finds that treating slaves in a kinder manner actually benefits the slave owners (Equiano 709). Equiano states that the slaves under more solicitous masters “were uncommonly cheerful and healthy, and did more work” (709). Furthermore, he mentions how many malevolent slave owners would have to replace their slaves very often in order to make up for the amount of slaves that would die due to the harsh and unhealthy conditions that the slaves were put in (709). Equiano does all of this in order to try and reason with his audience in a more efficient way. Equiano realized that trying to convince his audience that slavery was completely wrong would not work due to the very strong views on it in his time. Instead he tries to convince his audience to change the manner in which they treat their slaves in order to benefit themselves, which consequently would benefit the slaves and contribute to their
Equiano starting out had caring captors, “[t]he people I was sold to used to carry me very often when I was tired either on their shoulders or on their backs” (Equiano 54). Equiano’s first master lost his wife and daughter causing the mental state to be off, so Equiano was sold. Luckily Equiano was able to see his sister once again, he felt the need to be there for her and try to aid the pain she was feeling. All slave masters admired Equiano and he was still live a fair well off life but, that would soon change when boards the slave ship. Equiano finally will see the true horrors of how slaves were treated, “...and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation” (Equiano
I chose this word because the tone of the first chapter seems rather dark. We hear stories of the hopes with which the Puritans arrived in the new world; however, these hopes quickly turned dark because the Purtains found that the first buildings they needed to create were a prison, which alludes to the sins they committed; and a cemetery, which contradicts the new life they hoped to create for themselves.
... Negro mood, individual needs versus the race needs, right versus wrong and civilized verses primal instincts. In the end the Colonel was right. Negroes were born to serve and submit but not to an oppressor. Their serve and submit to their race and family needs.
There are other contrasting aspects of the stories that call for attention. Most significantly Benito Cereno – ultimately – portrays slaves as evil and Babo as the mind behind the cunning plan that deceives Captain Delano. The reason for this one-sided representation is naturally the fact that we experience the story from Delano’s point of view. In the beginning, we perceive Babo as the typical docile, helpful, and faithful servant so often portrayed in other slave characters such as Stowe’s Uncle Tom and Jim in Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Babo is more than just a slave; he is a “faithful fellow”, “a friend that cannot be called slave” . And despite all the underlying hints of a slave insurrection, Delano does not grasp their meaning. Examples are the slaves’ treatment of the Spanish sailors and the hatchet polishers , but in Delano’s narrow-minded world, only the white man is capable of conceiving plans of ‘evil’. And when he – and the reader too – finally sees “the mask torn away, flourishing hatchets and knives, in ferocious piratical revolt”, he is embarrassed and “with infinite pity he [withdraws] his hold from Don Benito” . From this moment on, Babo is a malign devil and Melville removes speech from Babo’s mouth. This strengthen our opinion of Babo as ‘evil’ even more, for how can we sympathise with him without hearing his version of the story? Apparently, Melville proposes no other alternative for the reader than to sympathise with the white slave owner Don Benito, whom Babo so ingeniously deceives.
According to Douglass, the treatment of a slave was worse than that of an animal. Not only were they valued as an animal, fed like an animal, and beaten like an animal, but also a slave was reduced to an animal when he was just as much of a man as his master. The open mentality a slave had was ...
In Raffel’s translated version of “The Seafarer”, the speaker is recalling and dwelling on the hardships of his life, which leads to harmful outcomes. Although some may argue that a person can gain wisdom from dwelling on the sorrowful side of life, a pessimistic attitude is more likely to leave a negative impact. From the beginning, the sailor in “The Seafarer” gives the reader a sense of how hopeless he really is: “Sorrow and fear and pain,/Showed me suffering in a hundred ships” (“The Seafarer” 3-4). The despair continues throughout the poem: “No kinsman could offer comfort there,/To a soul left drowning in desolation” (“The Seafarer” 25-26). The soul mentioned is depressed over the loss of something. It is not clear whom or what the soul is mourning over, but it can be assumed that he has lost a loved one, or perhaps his home, due to him being a sailor and
In Equiano 's personal slave narrative, The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Equiano uses distinguishing first person pronouns, thought provoking rhetorical questions, and eye-opening, harsh diction to flip the idea that the African people act backwards and barbaric. Equiano does so by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that truly the white people remain backwards and barbaric because of their hypocrisy. The contradiction of the perceptions of white and African people that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people is a misconception. The misconception of the perceptions of the African people makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish
“Give me knowledge, so I may have kindness for all” -Sitting Bull . In the speech by Chief Powhatan to John Smith he expresses how he wants peace between the English and the Powhatan people. Chief Powhatan wants to resolve the argument peacefully. He attempts to persuade Captain John Smith to have a peaceful relationship with both groups .His use of figurative language throughout the speech is highly important because this makes the speech so powerful and recognized through history.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Frederick Douglass’ landmark narrative describes the dehumanization of African-American slaves, while simultaneously humanizing them through his moving prose. Douglass shows the dehumanization of slaves through depictions of violence, deindividuation, and the broken justice system. However, Douglass’ pursuit of an education, moving rhetoric, and critique of his own masters demonstrates to the reader that African-Americans are just as intelligent as white people, thus proving their humanity.
...ns it held. Melville creates a character who never sees the reality on board the ship in his many speculations, particularly because Delano sees the slaves as too ignorant as to be able to devise such a thing, when the grand irony is the he is too blind to see it. Melville reverses the master and slave roles and brings them before a very slavery-conscious audience to whom he leaves the interpretation open, but laden with subtle messages about the horrible institution of slavery.