Written by Herman Melville, Benito Cereno is a tale that is full of symbols. We read the story from Captain Delano’s perspective, and through his eyes we enter onto the mysterious ship named “San Dominick”. However, through this limited point of view, we only get to see Delano’s perception. Later, we realize that Delano was deceived, and his perception of the ship was not at all what he had presumed it was.
A prominent symbol in the story is the ship itself, that drifts into Delano’s waters off of the coast of Chili. As a man of “a singularly undistrustful good nature (162)” Delano boarded the ship, despite it not having a flag, and not knowing who was on it. As described by Melville, the ship was in terrible condition. “Battered and mouldy, the castellated forecastle seemed some ancient turret, long ago taken by assault, and then left to decay (164)” The physical state of the symbolizes that it is not under its rightful ownership. Although the ship has damage from being stranded at sea for some time, a captain would have tried to keep the ship in good condition.
Later it is revealed that Babo and Atufal had murdered the captain of the ship, Alexander Aranda, and hung his skeleton at the front, under a canvas. “Rudely painted or chalked, as in sailor freak, along the forward side of a sort of pedestal below the canvas, was the sentence, “Seguid vuestro jefe, (165)” This phrase meaning “follow your leader” poses confusion for the readers. The captain of the ship is dead, and from Delano’s perspective we are under the assumption that Benito Cereno is the leader of the ship. But, after many strange occurrences, we begin to question this. It is possible to believe that Babo is in fact the leader of the ship. The fact that Melville chooses to describe the sentence as “rudely painted or chalked, as in sailor freak (165)” suggests that this message could have been written by Babo, as a reminder to all of his shipmates that he is the man in charge.
The fact that this whole tale is a charade makes me believe that Babo is the true leader that the crew was following. He had Benito wrapped so tightly around his finger, that he followed through with acting as the captain of the ship. Through Delano’s naive eyes we are unable to see what is truly happening, until Benito jumps off of the ship and Babo goes after him with a knife. Basing our ideas on one persons perception can lead us astray and distract from the reality of a situation.
Megan, I enjoyed reading your post. I agree that there is symbolism all throughout the story; it is even a bit overwhelming! I have been trying to really sort through the symbols of the story and your post was very helpful. The ship as a symbol was an interesting point. I think the appearance of the ship is incredibly important to the story. It definitely foreshadows the struggles the ship faces after Captain Delano boards. It was gutsy, for lack of better term, for Delano to approach and board the ship when there was no flag to show whom this ship belonged to or who they were. After Babo had killed the captain of the ship and displayed his skeleton with the phrase, it can be inferred that Babo is now the owner of the ship and the one who the rest should follow.
ReplyDeleteI like that you compare the story to a charade. The entire story really is a charade because of the one point of view the reader never completely understands what is going on until the end of the story. The one point of view, I agree, makes it difficult to grasp the reality of the situation. Overall, I think your interpretation of the symbols was spot on and you also helped clear some of the symbols up for me as well. Very good job, thanks for sharing!