Thursday, October 20, 2011
Benito Cereno 10/20/2011
Today was one of our final class discussions about Benito Cereno. Our main focus today was to separate the three themes found in the short story. The theme that stuck out the most to me was the theme of racism. I believe Delano could not see the truth behind revolt by the Negroes because his racism got in the way. His mindset on how "Negro slaves could never overpower those who were their white owners" kept him from seeking the truth. In your opinion, what was the most important theme to why Delano could not catch onto the Negro revolt?
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I agree with Jayme that Delano's racism was the main reason he couldn't figure out what was going on. Although he did notice many things that were odd or out of place on the ship, he always strayed away from explanations that involved the slaves having more power or a higher status than the Spaniards. I think that becuase Delano was so used to having this racist mindset in which he considered slaves as cheerful companions always helping their masters, it was very hard for him to accept the revolt until it was literally right in front of him.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Jayme. I believe that Delano could not figure out that it was in fact the Africans that were in charge because he was so blinded by his racism. I believe that it was a combination of racism and Delano being naive. The thought that the Africans could take over the ship never crossed his mind until he actualy saw Babo with a knife in his hand. I also believe that everyone on board before Delano was a little arrogant as well. The captian of the ship, Alexander, let the slaves wonder. It was arrogant of Alexander to think that the slaves would not revolt; of course they would!. I believe that it was due to Delanos and Alexanders arrogance and racism that they could not see what was actually going on
ReplyDeleteI believe that the most important theme to why Delano couldn't catch onto the revolt was because he was racist and didn't want to face the facts. He was extremely ignorant because he had all of the facts and reasons right in front of him but he never put the pieces together to figure out what was going on. If he wouldn't have undermined the African slaves so much he would have probably been able to catch on much much sooner. But because of his racist ideas he wasn't able to figure out what was going on until the end part of the book.
ReplyDeleteDo you think his innocent thought process had anything to do with his inability to see things clearly? Or was it just pure racism? If it was just racism then why did he brush off other strange situations that had nothing to do with race, such as the knot?I think answers to these questions would define what the author might have wanted us to see in the story.
ReplyDeletei think that there was an element of it being his innocent thought process, but at the same time, that thought process was because of his racism. Because Delano lived in a society where the africans were seen as inferior, it was completely out of his realm of imagination that they could revolt against whites. so i think that its a little bit of both
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