¶ … Benito Cereno" by Herman Melville
The theme of racial inequality in "Benito Cereno" by Herman Melville
The novel "Benito Cereno" (1856) by Herman Melville is a literary work that contemplates and depicts the issue of slavery and racial discrimination, which is a social problem that existed and is promoted by nineteenth century Western society. In the novel, Melville presents his own opinion about the said issue, illustrating the detrimental effects that slavery and discrimination results to the welfare of the white people, who are oppressors of the black slaves. By presenting a situation wherein white and black people experienced a "reversal of roles" in the novel, Melville conveys an effective message where he leaves his audience reflecting on the issue and resolution arrived at by the end of "Benito Cereno."
In depicting the theme of slavery and racial discrimination, Melville utilized three important elements in the novel, namely the character of Benito Cereno, the setting of the sea, and...
Another fairly salient example of the irony between the relationship between Babo and Cereno is presented when Babo shaves the ship's captain. On a literal level, this incident appears highly indicative of the subservience of Babo to Cereno, since he is performing some mundane task for the benefit of the captain. However, a closer reexamination of the diction utilized in Melville's description of this scene in a dialogue between Babo
." The character of Babo, who apparently was just a loyal personal attendant of Don Benito, but actually he was the person first-in-command of the throng of slaves, and tended to be a constant eye on Benito, and influenced (in fact controlled) all his actions/decisions. As it was revealed in the latter portion of the story, that it was Babo, who took the dire initiative to overrule the enslavement, which was
nature in American literature, from earliest writings to the Civil War period. It is my purpose to outline the connection between spirituality, freedom and nature and explain how American writers have chosen to reflect and interpret these themes in relation to their historical realities. At the beginning of the colonization process there were two congruent depictions of nature. Initially, the tribes comprising The Iroquois League lived in close contact with
Man of the Crowd By Edgar Allan Poe (1840) The story significantly depicts not only the preoccupation of the 17th hundred London issues and a trend brought by the progressive industrialization of time, but speaks so much relevance in our modern time as well. The epigraph which sums up the very essence of the story explains the dynamic of a human being too busy to mingle with the crowd for fear of
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