A Comparison Between Authors from Vastly Different Eras
At first glance, you might assume that authors living and writing on topics existing over 150 years apart would be so vastly different with no realistic chance of sharing a common message. Each author lived in distinct time periods with marked differences in writing styles, religious backgrounds, and motivations. The daily habits and obstacles of each would be entirely foreign to the other had they ever had the opportunity to meet. One struggled daily to obtain food while the other could simply purchase it at the local store. Despite their separation in in the gulf of time, Mary Rowlandson and Herman Melville shared similar experiences in witnessing the interaction of two cultures and …show more content…
Captain Delano embodies this mindset in “Benito Cereno” as he candidly describes the people aboard the San Dominick: “All six, unlike the generality, had the raw aspect of unsophisticated Africans” (Melville 1359). Even more powerful is Delano’s comparing an African slave to an ugly dog: “By his side stood a black of small stature, in whose rude face, as occasionally, like a shepherd 's dog, he mutely turned it up into the Spaniard 's, sorrow and affection were equally blended” (Melville 1360). The racist canine comparison continues as he further suggests slaves are only capable of subservient traits: “In fact, like most men of a good, blithe heart, Captain Delano took to Negroes, not philanthropically, but genially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs” (Melville 1386). Acting as the precedent, these attitudes evolve into the notion that people could be held as a commodity, to be bought and sold at the owner’s whim: “I should like to have your man here myself- what will you take for him? Would fifty doubloons be any object” (Melville 1376)? Hateful derogatory comments like these only serve to foment hostile animosity and highlight the arrogance of the …show more content…
Ships coming from Africa carried people captured against their will and turned them into a commodity to be bought and sold. Subjected to traumatic experiences of brutality, these people experienced the gravest of inhumane conditions as slaves. Random beatings and physical torture occur at the whim of their new masters. Food and water are a luxury reserved for higher social classes, slaves being permitted only the minimum required to sustain life. Chains, iron bars, and pistols are tool to render them virtually powerless and enforce their bondage. Ordinarily, most individuals desire peace, but there is a finite amount of abuse bearable before the soul lashes out for vengeance. This mistreatment consequently leads to spontaneous uprisings that display a sickening lack of mercy: “the Negroes revolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter, and successively killed eighteen men of those who were sleeping upon deck, some with handspikes and hatchets, and others by throwing them alive overboard, after tying them” (Melville 1403). The slaves having now taken control of the ship continue the murderous rampage: “the Negro Babo commanded the Ashantee Martinqui and the Ashantee Lecbe to go and commit the murder; that those two went down with hatchets to the berth of Don Alexandro; that, yet half alive and mangled, they dragged him on deck” (Melville 1404). The fate of Don Alexandro illustrates reality
At first glance, you might assume that authors living and writing on topics existing over 150 years apart would be so vastly different with no realistic chance of sharing a common message. Each author lived in distinct time periods with marked differences in writing styles, religious backgrounds, and motivations. The daily habits and obstacles of each would be entirely foreign to the other had they ever had the opportunity to meet. One struggled daily to obtain food while the other could simply purchase it at the local store. Despite their separation in in the gulf of time, Mary Rowlandson and Herman Melville shared similar experiences in witnessing the interaction of two cultures and …show more content…
Captain Delano embodies this mindset in “Benito Cereno” as he candidly describes the people aboard the San Dominick: “All six, unlike the generality, had the raw aspect of unsophisticated Africans” (Melville 1359). Even more powerful is Delano’s comparing an African slave to an ugly dog: “By his side stood a black of small stature, in whose rude face, as occasionally, like a shepherd 's dog, he mutely turned it up into the Spaniard 's, sorrow and affection were equally blended” (Melville 1360). The racist canine comparison continues as he further suggests slaves are only capable of subservient traits: “In fact, like most men of a good, blithe heart, Captain Delano took to Negroes, not philanthropically, but genially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs” (Melville 1386). Acting as the precedent, these attitudes evolve into the notion that people could be held as a commodity, to be bought and sold at the owner’s whim: “I should like to have your man here myself- what will you take for him? Would fifty doubloons be any object” (Melville 1376)? Hateful derogatory comments like these only serve to foment hostile animosity and highlight the arrogance of the …show more content…
Ships coming from Africa carried people captured against their will and turned them into a commodity to be bought and sold. Subjected to traumatic experiences of brutality, these people experienced the gravest of inhumane conditions as slaves. Random beatings and physical torture occur at the whim of their new masters. Food and water are a luxury reserved for higher social classes, slaves being permitted only the minimum required to sustain life. Chains, iron bars, and pistols are tool to render them virtually powerless and enforce their bondage. Ordinarily, most individuals desire peace, but there is a finite amount of abuse bearable before the soul lashes out for vengeance. This mistreatment consequently leads to spontaneous uprisings that display a sickening lack of mercy: “the Negroes revolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter, and successively killed eighteen men of those who were sleeping upon deck, some with handspikes and hatchets, and others by throwing them alive overboard, after tying them” (Melville 1403). The slaves having now taken control of the ship continue the murderous rampage: “the Negro Babo commanded the Ashantee Martinqui and the Ashantee Lecbe to go and commit the murder; that those two went down with hatchets to the berth of Don Alexandro; that, yet half alive and mangled, they dragged him on deck” (Melville 1404). The fate of Don Alexandro illustrates reality