Whether one cares to admit it or not, the concept of race continues to be a driving force that directly influences our world view and the manner in which we perceive others. As members of societies, we as humans are oftentimes guilty of feeding into the historically mandated standard of what is expected of a certain ethnicity, failing to fully recognize that a human’s skin color does not define the traits that they exude. The construct of ‘blackness’ is a result of this tendency, leading to a societally instilled assumption of what people of African descent are, and what they are not. In his novella Benito Cereno, Herman Melville utilizes the character Babo to grant the reader an opportunity to reflect on the perceptions of ‘blackness’ and
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The reader is guided through textual observations from the point of view of a romantically racist and biased source who feeds fully into the concept of equating ‘blackness’ with inferiority, and fails to acknowledge that people of African descent are capable of holding a position of power. The captain continually interprets Babo’s demeanor as “steady good conduct,” and feels a sense of “humane satisfaction” despite all of the signs suggesting that things are not as they should be (42). Later in the text, his fixed perception of the character’s ‘blackness’ blinds him to the suspicious behavior that is being displayed by the entirety of the ship’s slave population. When a slave strikes a Spaniard over the head with the blade of a knife, Delano quickly writes off the moment and attributes it to Benito Cereno’s weakness as a leader, referring to him as a “paper captain” who “has little of command but the name” (49). Despite the pattern of profound debilitation demonstrated by the minute population of Europeans on the ship, Delano’s racist mentality directly influences his continuation to equate ‘whiteness’ with a position of power, and ‘blackness’ with servility. This skewed mentality is once again demonstrated during what can be identified as the “Shaving Scene”, wherein Babo takes on the role as a barber servicing the …show more content…
By guiding the reader through the plot from a benignly racist point of view, the author makes it easy to succumb to Delano’s gullibility regarding the actions of the novella’s characters. In the form of a social commentary that transcends the context of the work, Melville forces his readers to confront the issue of being unable to imagine those of African descent outside of a role of inferiority and
The reader is guided through textual observations from the point of view of a romantically racist and biased source who feeds fully into the concept of equating ‘blackness’ with inferiority, and fails to acknowledge that people of African descent are capable of holding a position of power. The captain continually interprets Babo’s demeanor as “steady good conduct,” and feels a sense of “humane satisfaction” despite all of the signs suggesting that things are not as they should be (42). Later in the text, his fixed perception of the character’s ‘blackness’ blinds him to the suspicious behavior that is being displayed by the entirety of the ship’s slave population. When a slave strikes a Spaniard over the head with the blade of a knife, Delano quickly writes off the moment and attributes it to Benito Cereno’s weakness as a leader, referring to him as a “paper captain” who “has little of command but the name” (49). Despite the pattern of profound debilitation demonstrated by the minute population of Europeans on the ship, Delano’s racist mentality directly influences his continuation to equate ‘whiteness’ with a position of power, and ‘blackness’ with servility. This skewed mentality is once again demonstrated during what can be identified as the “Shaving Scene”, wherein Babo takes on the role as a barber servicing the …show more content…
By guiding the reader through the plot from a benignly racist point of view, the author makes it easy to succumb to Delano’s gullibility regarding the actions of the novella’s characters. In the form of a social commentary that transcends the context of the work, Melville forces his readers to confront the issue of being unable to imagine those of African descent outside of a role of inferiority and