Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

Résumé du document

Cette analyse écrite en anglais de l'oeuvre Benito Cereno d'Herman Melville décortique plus particulièrement la façon dont sont perçus les esclaves par l'auteur et le narrateur. Le thème est plus particulièrement "Giving Voice to Rebellious Slaves". Il y a également une comparaison avec "The Heroic Slave", l'oeuvre de Frederick Douglass.

Extraits

[...] In Benito Cereno, Babo never has the occasion to say to Delano why he decided to rebel against the whites and why he wanted to gain his freedom. He could not justify his action so he could not have the Spaniards' pity while Madison has the readers and Mr. Listwell's pity and encourages us to be abolitionists or to be against the idea of slavery. More than giving voice to the rebellious slaves, Frederick Douglass also gives voice to the abolitionists through Mr. [...]

[...] However, he does not want to enslave white people because they are different from him. In fact, it is as if Frederick Douglass wanted to tell us Madison Washington was more evolved and more intelligent than all the white slaveholders. Finally, in "The Heroic Slave", we see that Madison Washington became the leader of the black rebellion for a good reason: he has a natural authority, and is naturally respect by his fellow companions. "Madison, by that mesmeric power which is the invariable accompaniment of genius, had already won the confidence of the gang, and was a sort of general-in-chief among them" (Douglass, 1258). [...]

[...] Babo dies at the end of Benito Cereno. He does not offer victory to his fellow companions. Therefore, white people did not consider Babo as a good leader contrary to Madison. Indeed, in "The Heroic Slave" we can read "under the triumphant leadership of their heroic chief and deliverer, Madison Washington" (Douglass, 1267). By saying that, the author means that Madison was as skilled as a white chief to command an army of people and to lead them to victory. [...]

[...] Giving Voice to Rebellious Slaves When we read Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, we struggle to understand if this story is for or against slavery. The leader of the rebellious slaves, called Babo, seems like an uncivilized man in the eyes of the narrator and therefore the reader because he never justifies his action. He does not say why he decided to rebel against and kill white people. After having read "The Heroic Slave" by Frederick Douglass, I have the feeling Melville was pro-slavery or at least, did not know how to express his anti-slavery ideas. [...]

[...] Also, he does not need any white man to help him command the ship. In "The Heroic Slave", Madison is compared to a white man, which was unbelievable at this time. The white sailor says "the leader of the mutiny [ . ] was as well fitted to lead in a dangerous enterprise as any white man" (Douglass, 1264). By saying this, he shows that Madison has skills, he is not only a savage that people can use for manual labors in a cotton plantation. [...]