Engineer Melville's Ambiguous Narrative Blog
In "Benito Cereno," the ambiguity between Benito Cereno and Babo is played out brilliantly throughout the narrative. Cereno is the master and Babo is part of a group of slaves who are addressed in the deposition as "Negroes." After the mutiny, the roles reverse and Cereno is taken as a hostage as, "the Negroes revolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter." The deponent Cereno narrates, "the Negroes made themselves masters of the hatchway." Babo assumes Cereno’s role as the master to which the deponent confirms, "Negro Babo was, being the ringleader." Cereno plays the victim and suggests that the "Negroes," "threatened him to kill all the whites if they were not, at all events,carried to Senegal." "Negro Babo," appears to be a ruthless tyrant at sea and is portrayed as a pirate that preys on innocent people such as Cereno and his crew. The descriptive narration by Cereno, shows Babo and the slaves in poor light as barbaric savages, "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; that they were going to throw him overboard in that state, but the Negro Babo stopped them,bidding the murder be completed on the deck before him, which was done, when, by his orders." Cereno introduces "generous Captain Amasa Delano," in good light and passes him off as an equal. Delano is oblivious to the mutiny on board and believes Cereno’s story that the ship is in disarray because, "in a subsequent fever, many Negroes had died; that also, by similar casualties, all the sea officers and the greatest part of the crew had died." "Negro Babo," is playing a two sided game by assuming his role as the slave to show Delano that everything is normal as Cereno says, "the Negro Babo, performing the office of an officious servant with all the appearance of submission of the humble slave." On the other hand, he is plotting with Cereno to capture Delano and take his ship as Cereno confesses, "the Negro Babo proposed to him to gain from Amasa Delano full particulars about his ship, and crew, and arms." When Delano contemplates on leaving to go back to his ship, Cereno sees this as a sign that he could be saved and follows him, "the deponent believes to have come from God and his angels." The "Negresses" are portrayed by the deponent as evil witches who were scheming to kill Cereno and states that, "Negresses used their utmost influence to have the deponent made away with; that, in the various acts of murder, they sang songs and danced." Cereno appears to be saving Amasa’s life as well as his when he says, "True, true," cried Captain Delano, starting, "you saved my life, Don Benito, more than I yours; saved it, too, against my knowledge and will." The mind and human nature are shown in terms of human depravity in the quote, As for the black- whose brain, not body, had schemed and led the revolt." Finally, Babo is found guilty and "Negro Babo," was put to death and his head was on display for, "the gaze of the whites; and across the Plaza looked toward St. Bartholomew’s church." In the end Cereno is dismissed by the court and "Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leader." The indelible relationship between Cereno and Babo switching roles from master to slave comes to an end.
Hi Zubin, My name is Denise and I choose your blog to comment on. Your blog contained many important elements that I failed to recognize and I can find no fault with it therefore, I’ll use this comment to add my farthing’s worth. You write, “In ‘Benito Cereno,’ the ambiguity between Benito Cereno and Babo is played out brilliantly throughout the narrative. Cereno is the master and Babo is part of a group of slaves who are addressed in the deposition as "Negroes."
ReplyDelete“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; that they were going to throw him overboard in that state, but the Negro Babo stopped them, bidding the murder be completed on the deck before him, which was done, when, by his orders."
Indeed Babo does do as you write; the question for me is “was Babo justified in what he did?” And to that question I answer, “yes.” In addition to your revealing portrait of the relationship between Babo and Benito Cereno, I will go a little farther and offer that in Benito Cereno, Melville also allows the reader to determine for himself the tragic hero in this story. For this author, the tragic hero is not Benito Cereno, but indeed Babo, for Benito Cereno had the free will to choose not to Captain a slave ship.
And, Babo had no choice and although forced to commit acts of atrocity, I feel his motivation was pure, what he sought was freedom and he was willing to kill or die in its pursuit. In this story, set in 1799, the Negro is portrayed as an equal to or superior to whites, not only in intelligence, but also in humankind. Babo was a man first and a Negro second and no man should be placed in bondage at the hands of another. Babo was not innocent of evil, but his evil was justifiable. Again, Benito Cereno is more that an indictment of slavery, it is a story that grants humanity to Blacks at a time when they were viewed by many as just property. Babo is the tragic hero of Benito Cereno.
Again Zubin, I truly enjoyed your blog and wish you continued success in your studies at Loyola, Denise.
Denise,
DeleteNice to hear from you. Thank you for your wonderful feedback. Hope everything is going well for you at Loyola
Regards, Zubin
In the first part of this novella, Melville opens with an emphasis on the color grey: “everything is grey”; “the sky seemed a grey mantle; “grey fowl;” “grey vapours,” etc.. Since grey is a color between white and black, it appears that Melville is telling us at the outset that not everything to follow is what it appears to be and that the reader will be required to sort out for herself any ambiguities. This applies to Amasa Delano’s detective work (what else can we call it!) as well as the themes of slavery and racism.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Melville is pitting good/innocence against evil. Rather, he is attempting to undermine the stereotypes that white people have of black people in an effort to demonstrate the complexity of human emotion, and to shed light on the relationship between slavery and racism.
Melville succeeds in showing the degrading effect of slavery for both the black slave and the white master. Through the eyes of Delano, Melville paints a picture of the white man as the bumbling fool with good will yet condescension toward the black and the black as the loyal, almost human and clever counterpart. As Cereno’s testimony indicates, the truth lies somewhere in between these stereotypes. They both can be kind, manipulative, designing, and violent as shown by their role reversal. The difference is that because of their racist motivations, the white man caused the horrible suffering of the slaves that motivated their mutiny. The picture of Babo’s head on a pole casting a shadow over Cereno’s monastery is poetic in its meaning.
It should be noted that Delano and Cereno are relating the white man’s version of events. We only receive an inkling of the black man’s version. For instance, Don Aranda was killed to substantiate the claim that the black slaves were free men. The evisceration of the body’s flesh was accomplished to serve as a warning to all others. These deaths appear to be more pragmatic than the result of savagery. The fact that the slaves were allowed on deck and untethered was not the typical way black slaves were transported. The number who died in transit was disproportionately high.
As an aside, Delano’s seal ship, the Bachelor’s Delight, may refer to the temperament of its captain or may refer to the legendary pirate ship that sailed the Pacific Ocean in the 17th century.