In the absence of life, liberty, and justice – are we all capable of savageness? After reading Douglas’ The Heroic Slave and Melville’s Benito Cereno, I'm left to ponder.
In The Heroic Slave, we are allowed a glimpse into the gentle heart and soul of Washington, providing insight into his true character and enabling us to experience sympathy and compassion for him. As a result, we find ourselves “rooting” for the freedom of the slaves and hoping for the downfall of the violent oppression by white slave owners of that era. Even though we later learn of Washington’s role in the mutiny aboard the Creole, we still view Washington as “good” and the mutiny justified.
Conversely, in reading Benito Cereno, we are made to feel pity for the white man -- Delano in what appears to be his sheltered stupidity and naivety, as well as Cereno in his passive and eccentric oddities potentially being taken advantage of by the slaves. We are quickly led into a general uneasiness and fear of the slaves aboard the San Dominick and later horrified over the revealed mutiny and vile murder of Cereno’s friend, Alexandro Aranda.
Very similarly oppressive situations leading to each mutiny, I would imagine; yet I find I’m siding with very different viewpoints in each instance because of the perspective I was allowed to see by each of the authors. Melville and Douglas chose to highlight different characteristics and segments of the slave’s lives, thus skewing our perception of who is good vs. evil and altering our receptiveness to each character. For instance, I grew to believe Babo might be a terrorist of sorts; but like Washington -- was Babo beaten and degraded throughout his life? Did he have a family? Was his wife murdered in pursuit of basic freedom? Did he too, lead his people through a mutinous liberation? Is there another story to this tale?
In conclusion I suspect we all have endearing qualities that another may or may not see on any given day. But if life and basic rights were threatened and we were forced into a “fight or flight” scenario, how would we each respond? Would that render us evil?
Moreover, is the reader merely the author’s puppet; manipulated and maneuvered into false feeling and perception; tricked into rooting for the supposed underdog; “masked” from the truth of each novella?
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Nan,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post, and I, myself was thinking about the contrast and similarities between both books. As I mentioned in class earlier, I felt as though Melville had a hidden message that slavery was of good use to whites- and that he justified it by presenting this story and certain instances within the story-such as the treatment of the Spaniards from the slaves. You summed it up with "we are made to feel pity for the white man" in Benito Cereno- and I completely agree. Benito is a stark contrast from Heroic Slave, where we feel pity for those enslaved. Lastly, you make a good point by bringing up Babo. The reader automatically feels bad for Benito because of the way he was treated, but do we step back and consider what Babo went through? Do we know his side of the story? When you think about it, did he not do what any normal human being would do if they found themselves enslaved? So I appreciate that you mentioned an important part that many who read this when it was published most likely failed to see.