Melville Post

After reading Melville’s Benito Cereno I pictured myself on board with Johnny Depp on the set of Pirates of the Carribean. There is an air of gothic imagery the way in which the ship is portrayed. Delano stated it reminded him of an old ruined castle. It was a bit difficult to read at first, however as I began to get accustomed the 3^rd person narrative I was able to get a feeling for the characters and the plot. I gathered that what took place was a slave rebellion. The reading was exciting and suspenseful and in many ways struck me as an attempt to give slavery some justification at least from Delano’s point of view. The reader can see in many ways how he is annoyed by Cereno’s carefree attitude in running the San Dominick. One example is when he witnesses a black boy hitting a white boy, which to him is an alarming situation. Cereno merely views this occurrence as child play. This suggests that there is a dichotomy of thought and could be a political interpretation of how slaves should be perceived. All of the characters, mainly the slave workers were also very interesting to follow and became growingly intimidating as the reader discovers they were the ones who ran the ship. The Ashanti conjurers in particular are very frightening! I would hate to be on the same ship with them. Throughout the short story they are depicted as sharpening their hatchets very ominously. Don Benito Cereno I find to be the least threatening and somewhat lax.