The Politics of Race in Benito Cereno

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The Politics of Race in "Benito Cereno"Author(s): Howard WelshSource: American Literature, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Jan., 1975), pp. 556-566Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2924580Accessed: 11-02-2016 08:39 UTC

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2/12

556

American

Literature

The Politics

of Race

in

"Benito

Cereno"

HOWARD WELSH

University

of

Southern Mississippi,

Natchez

iN

MELVILLE'S

"BenitoCereno" here s

a

neglected

evelof

political

i implication.

hough t s well

known hat

Melvillewas conscious

of the problems

fslavery nd

race, mploying

hemrepeatedlyn

his work,misunderstanding

f

Melville's reatmentf

racial con-

flictn

"BenitoCereno"has often

ausedthe

story o be condemned

on "artistic"roundswhen n factthe covertmotives or condem-

nation

were political.

Not

to mention

ll of thecases,even

a critic f the

stature

f

Matthiessen

ould

not accept thefact that

the blacks

are not the

heroes f

the story.Matthiessen's

as one

typeof liberalresponse

to the

work-the

response f

a

liberalwho

understandshat

Mel-

ville'sblacksare not

morally lawless

nd who cannot

muster he

detachment

o appreciate he artistic

merits

f the story.Another

type f iberal esponse,owever, hichholdsthat BenitoCereno"

is

very

good "artistically,"till

misreads t.

EleanorSimpson den-

tifies heview and its-myopia,

aying:

Despite hewishfulhinking

f

somewell-intentioned

iberals,

t

s

clear

that

Melville id not ntend abo

and hismutinous

egroeso

come

ff

as

heroic ightersgainst

ppression

nd injustice,hus llowing

s to

read

he

torys an antislaveryract.

elville astes o time

making lear

what t is aboutthe

Negroes board

he

San

Dominick

thatCaptain

Delano fails osee: t stheirmalice,heirvil.'

I

What

has

thrown

ffmany

reader n

interpreting

he

story

s

that lthough stereotyped

ayof ooking

t theNegro s attacked

the

stereotype

n question s not

the one usually

underattack:

he

"Southern"

ne. Simpson s persuasive

n

building her case that

Melville's argetwas the contemporary

bolitionist

tereotypef

the

Negroas inherentlyocile and frolicsome,ven thoughgrievously

put upon.

Within the

story

CaDtain

Delano

begins

ike

a

tVDical

1

Eleanor

Simpson, "Melville and the Negro: From

Typee to 'Benito

Cereno,'

"

American

Literature, XLI (March,

I969),

34.

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3/12

Notes

557

abolitionistn that,

lyingn thefaceof the

evidence board he

San

Domlinick,

allhis old weaknessornegroes eturned."2rue

tohis conditioning,elano envies on Benitouch "friend"s

Babo-"slave cannot

all him" BC, p. 194). Delano s also

ike

a typicalbolitionistn appreciatingheNegro's

great ift fgood-

humor"; t is "as thoughGod had set the

wholenegro o some

pleasant une" (BC,

p.

222).

As an example f anotherspect f the

abolitionisttereotype,

Simpson itesJames

reeman larke,whoaddressedn article o

Negroesn whichhe exhortedhem o make

money,forno race

inthis ountry illbe despised hichmakesmoney." henClarke

goes

on to make comparisonhat eveals latent ttitude:

If

we

had in

Boston r New York ten orang-outangs

orth million

dollars ach, heywould

visit n thebest ociety. .

."3 The same

notion ppearswhen

Delano thinks f "thedocilityrising rom

the

unaspiringontentment

f a limitedmind, nd that uscepti-

bility f bland attachmentometimesnhering

n indisputable

inferiors"-or,s Delanoelsewhereoncludes,

o carrynto

ffect

an evil design heblacks were oo stupid." esides, e reflects,

"The whites . . by

nature ere he hrewder

ace"

BC,

p.

213).

Thus, f at firsthere

s to be anyevilforDelano aboard

heSan

Dominick,hen t must e white vil.

Melville akes ains o picture

henatural lack s

not

unswerv-

inglydisposed owards entleness. nd he

shows, urther,

hat

blacks-or t anyrate

ome f them, s exemplifiedy Babo-are

not too tupid" o

conceivend effectn

evildesign. abo'shead

wasa "hive fsubtlety";is brain, otbody, adschemednd ed

the

evolt . ." (BC,p.

259).

PerhapsMelville

aised hedistinction

between rain nd body o ndicatehat, hough

he aw recognizes

the

lave

s

bQdy

nly, s

a

mindlesshattel,

imple xpediency,

f

nothinglse,maygive

force o a certain lottingower.

he

point

in

showing henursing

lackmother,like

a

doe," s to prepare

forthe

ater evelationhat

he blackwomen

n

board he

San

Dominick

re not altogetherike does.

Delano reflects,

There's

nakednature, ow;pure endernessnd love . ." (BC, p.

211).

2

Herman

Melville, Great

ShsortWorks of Herman

Melville (New

York,

I966),

p. 223;

all subsequent

refercnces

o "Benito

Cereno" are

by title initials

and pages

from this

edition

and follow the material

cited in the

text,enclosed in parentheses.

3

Simpson,

p.

36.




4/12

558

American

Literature

But this s

never he way Melville

ees

"nakednature"-as

witness

therestof his

canon.The context

uns

on to, "Unsophisticated

s

leopardesses;oving as doves,"underscoring elville'sperception

of the

universaltamp

f dualism.At the

end of

the storyne finds

out that

heblack

womenwere

not content

merelyo kill

Spaniards

-they wanted o torture

hem o death.

To returno the

matter f stupidity,

aking ncapacity

o grasp

reality

s stupidity,

elano scores

high marks.

His ship is the

Bachelor's

elight: recall

the use of the

word bachelor

orepresent

"uninitiated"

n

"The

Paradise

of Bachelors"

nd

the

ship

named

theBachelor n Moby-Dick,whosecrewneverhas seentheWhite

Whale

and does not

believe n

it. Eleanor Simpson,

noting

that

Melville

s parodying

certain f

his fellow

Northerners,"ays

that

"Delano, significantly,

s

a

Massachusetts

an;

in

fact

that

s

the

first hingwe

are told about

him."4

The nextfact

evident

bout

Delano

is thathe is naive-not

just as a species f

abolitionist

en-

tality ut, s

to Melville,

ll men

are

who

overlook

he signal

fact

of the universe: vil has

broad

dominionhere.

Delano

might

have

beensuspicioust onceaboutthecircumstancesn whichhe found

the

San

Dominick,

. . .had he not

been person

fa singularly

ndistrustful

oodnature,

not iable,

xcept n extraordinary

nd repeatedncentives,

nd

hardly

then,

o

indulge

n

personal

larms,

ny way nvolving

he mputation

of malign vil

n man.

Whether,

n viewof whathumanity

s capable,

such trait mplies,

longwith

benevolent

eart,more han

rdinary

quickness

nd

accuracy

f

ntellectual

erception,ay

be left o the

wise

to

determine.

BC,pp. 82-I83)

Not

much ater

he

narrative escribes

somnambulistic

irdwhich

can be caught

yhandat sea-the

white

noddy BC, p. I84).

Delano

speaks

ruly

when

he tellsCereno o "take

a

fool's

dvice . ."

(BC,

p.

200).

II

In theopeningof "BenitoCereno" Melville sketches leaden-

hued

seascape.

Fortunately,

o

much has

been

written

bout the

roleof

theadroitlymanaged

olor

ymbolism

n the story

hat

here

4

Ibid.,

p.

37.




5/12

Notes

559

is no

need o gointo t extensively

ere. n general

hepoint

s

that

so long

s Delano

remainsonfused

bout he

moral tate f affairs

aboard heSan Dominicko theexteriorppearancef thingss

mantledn

a

gray

haze. At length,

iscovering

he truepresence

of evil,Delano sorts hings

ut

nto learblack

nd white

long

racial

ines.Melvillebligingly

udges

hereadernd

points o

the

political

unction

f

the

nveloping

loom:

Shadows resent,ore-

shadowingeeper

hadows

o come" BC, p. 182).

Muchhasbeenmade

of the ontrast

etween

elano'syouthful

vigor

nd dealismthat s,

his"Yankee"

utlook-and

he

nerva-

tion nd decay epictedn Cereno's ld World hip.But,what s

mistaken,

hiscontrasts

generally

eenas a contrast

etween

America

nd

Europe. ymbolically,

hetrue econd

erm

n the

contrast

iesmuch loser

o home.One needs

ayparticular

tten-

tion o

the

ext's

emarksn Cereno's

oilet

nd tsreiteratedtress

upon he paniard's

esembling

SouthAmerican

fhis

class.One

needs lso notice

boutCereno

uch hings s:

"That trange

ere-

moniousness,

oo,

t otherimes vinced,

eemed

otuncharacteristic

ofoneplaying part bovehisreal evel" BC, p.

201).

There

Melville

its

t one of Mark

Twain's avoriteargets,

he

Bourbon

affectations

f the

Southernetty entry.

ut,

houghlax as Don

Benito's

eneral

uthority ight

e, still,

whenever e

chose

to

exert

t,no

man osavage r colossal

utmust,more r ess,

ow"

(BC,

p.

231).

All these hings,f course,it

nicely s descriptives

or slave-

holding lanter

n the outhernart

ftheUnited tates.

nd one

needs

otice he

nstance henDelano

puts

his arm nthe balus-

trade" f the starboarduarter-gallery-itrumblesn rottenness.

But before his,

s Delanolooked

down nto

the sea below, he

reflectionf the

ship seemed

hecharred uin

of some

ummer-

house n

a

grandgarden

ong running

owaste,"

nd "Though

upon he

wide

ea,

he seemed

n some ar nland

ountry.

"

(BC,

p.

212).

One

needs eflecthat,

whileDon Benito s

the

picture

f

debility,

e

s young

n

years

ndfares s

a

plant

might

hen rans-

planted

o

an alien

soil-or

as

a

social nstitution,

ikewise rans-

planted, ight.t maywellbearguedhat henonadaptablergan-

ismwas nfact lavery,

n exotic hat

wouldnotperenially

loom

in

Americanoil.

One

couldgo on indefinitely

isting

irectorrespondences.

n




6/12

560

American

iterature

the

matter

f

Atufal, hulking

black seemingly

arassed

by

the

wispy, ypersensitiveereno, ppears

noteworthy

nstance.

tufal

seems obechained, hechainpadlocked, nd Cerenoholdsthekey.

The key s "suspended y a slender

ilken ord,fromDon Benito's

neck

. .

." In his blithe gnorance,

elano says: "So, Don Benito-

padlock and key-significantymbols,ruly" BC, p.

200).

To get

the

full import f that, ne

needs the aftersightf knowing hat

Atufal

was not

chained nd

torecall he stern-piece,

hichfeatures

"a dark satyr n a mask,holdinghis footon the prostrate eck of

a writhing igure,ikewisemasked" BC, p.

I85).

One of thethings

Melvilleprincipallyllustratesn the story s that f one asks who

the

slaves

re

it must

be

replied: In what sense?" n order or he

Southern ystem o exist, here

had to be a slavishdependency f

the aristocracy pon the slaves.Notice also the referenceso the

Southern nalogue, the Spaniards,being "forcedto black bread

themselves"BC, p. I89) and to Cereno's eaning upon Babo

as

"the lack pholdinghewhite

.

."

(BC, p.

I94).

Delano misreadsthe relationship

etween master and

man-

servant, hichhe believes o consist n trust nd amity.And he

would

have

been quite as wrongeven f master

nd

slave

had not

secretly witched oles. Nevertheless,he reversibilityf the roles

pointsup

a

truth he story eeks o demonstrate. hen Cereno

m-

personates master nd Babo fawningly

uts on the slave, ertain

aspects f their riginal oles ome ntofocus.All along t was not,

as usually upposed, one-sidedffair here hemastermade crucial

determinationsor heunreciprocating

lave; themasters hemselves

wereforced o black bread.The slaves ll alongmade crucialdeter-

minations or hemasters; ach

to an extent ormed heother.

With

that n

mind, onsider he statement

n the splendid having cene

"that

the

negro seemed

a

Nubian

sculptor inishing ff

a white

statue-head"

BC,

p. 226). The

dire

mplicationsf "finishing

ff"

in

the

contexthouldnot blot outthe attendantenseof "shaping."

Babo

"surveyed is master, s,

in toilet t least, he

creature f

his

own

tasteful

ands"; but, specially

t the

point

n the

story

where

that ine

occurs-for

Babo

has the

razor

t

Cereno's

hroat-,

the

"at

least" s ironical. nd,

"Shut up

in these akenwalls, hained oone

dull

round

of command,whose

unconditionalityloyedhim,

ike

some

hypochondriacbbot Cereno]

moved

lowly

bout

" (BC,

p. i88; italicsmine).




7/12

Notes

56I

III

The inextricablenot f the lavery roblems symbolizedy

thatvery hing-an nextricable

not.

A

Spanish

ailor, ecretly

tryingo

apprisehe caly yed elano

oftheir light,osses

elano

a knot, he

ntricacyf which he

had never een n an

American

ship,

r indeed nyother." elano

askswhat t

is for.The sailor

replies,For ome ne

lse oundo .

"

(BC,

p. 14). Delano

tands

"knotnhand, ndknot

nhead"

ntil neof heNegroes,

uspicious

ofthematter,egs he

knot- "for fcourse he

tranger

ouldnot

care obe

troubledith

t"

BC,

pp. 14, 215).

But f he lacksrenotparagons,heirmotivationust edealt

with.ThoughMelville's

ersonal pposition

o slavery

s plain,

especiallyn Mardi,

Melville as

no abolitionist;nd Babbalanja

f

Mardi, ften

spokesmanor

Melville,ays

hat remedial ar

would

be

a

greatervil

han lavery

tself. s for he elf-righteous

railersf heNorth f

Vivenza:

Whoso s

free rom rime,

ethim ross imself-but

oldhiscross pon

his ips.That he is notbad, s notof him.Potter'slay ndwax areall

moulded

yhands

nvisible.he soildecides he

man.And,

rebirth,

an

wills

ot o

beborn ere

rthere.

And

as for hewhole

f "Vivenza,"

orth,outh, ast, nd

West,

despite

er onfidenthetoric,all

evils

annot

e

doneaway.

or

evil

s the hronic alady

f he niverse;

ndcheckedn

oneplace,

breaks orth

n

another."5

In

The Confidence-Man

he itle

haractertrikesn

abolitionist

stancen oneof hismasquerades.onversingith itch, e infers

that,

hough itch

ives n

a

slave tate,

e is withoutlave

enti-

ments. itch eplies hat

ndeed

e doesnothave lave entiments

but

hat

is nterlocutoras thevery

irof a

slave, nd then itch

asks

himwhohismaster

s. "MyMaster?" ueries

heConfidence-

Man.Pitch nswers:

Aye, or omefromMaine

or Georgia,

ou

come rom slave-state,

nd slave-pen,

herehe est reeds

re o

be

bought

p at anyprice rom

livelihoodo thePresidency.

bo-

litionism,egods, ut xpresseshe ellow-feelingf lave or lave."6

Another atter

erhaps

ot ufficiently

houghthrough

elative

o

B

Herman

Melville,Mardi,

and a Voyage

Thither (New York, I963),

II, 25I; II, 244.

6

Herman Melville,

The Confidence-Man:

His Masqtterade (New

York,

I964),

pp.

I

I9-

I20.




8/12

562

American

Literature

the

Confidence-Man

s that, lthough

is roleof

Black

Guinea

serves

to pointup inhumane

reatmentf

blacks,

here

may

be additional

import o the factthatBlackGuineais the guiseforsomesortof

fiend.n another

ole, s

agentfor

he

Widowand

Orphan

Asylum

amongthe

Seminoles,

he

Confidence-Man

s ironically

dentified

withWilberforce.7

n

"Benito

Cereno,"

when

theNegroes

re seen

"withmasktorn

way"they

re n

a blood frenzy

BC,

p.

239).

Melville's

ccounting

or he

motivation

f themurderous

lacks

is seen

well

enough

n thestory.

black man,

ike

a

white

or any

other

ind

of

man, s,

qua man,

deeply

lawed reature

n

Melville's

point fview.And ofcourse laves esent eing laves. elano'smost

frequently

uoted

remark

s one

ofhisfew

ntelligent

bservations-

"Ah, this

lavery

reeds

gly

passions n

man" (BC,

p.

227).

More

often hannot,

however,

hat

emark

as

been taken

ut of

context:

it is

not

kept

n mind that,

hough

Cereno

has supposedly

one

the

thing

hat

licits

elano's

remark,

t is

at thatmoment

nknown

o

Delano

thatBabo

is the

real culprit.

hough

slavery

reeds

ugly

passions

n

the

master

s well

as the

slave,the

focus

of the

story

rests ntheuglypassions red n the lave.

Delano,

however,

eeps

heedlessly

alking

mong

the

ominous

Negroes-several

re polishing

atchets-thinking

o

himself,

Good

fellows "

he hatchet

olishing

elano

construes

s

a

sign

of patient

industry-but,

hen,

Delano

is even

somewhat

haritable

o

Span-

iards

i.e.,

Southerners):

Spaniards

re all

an

odd set;

thevery

word

Spaniard

has

a

curious,

onspirator,

uy-Fawkish

wang

to it.

And

yet,

dare say,

Spaniards

n

themain

are

as good folks

s any

n

Duxbury,Massachusetts"BC, p.

217).

This brand of "tolerance,"

moreover,

as racial

as

well

as regional

pplications.

elano

muses

that he turbaned

mulatto

rancesco-"the

king

of

kind

hearts

nd

polite

ellows"-has

been mproved

y

his strain

f

whiteblood:

For

it

were

trange,

ndeed,

nd not

very

reditableo

us white-skins,

if

a

little

f

our

blood

mixed

with heAfrican's,

hould,

ar

from

m-

proving

he

atter'suality,

avethe

adeffect

f

pouring

itriolic

cid

into

lack roth;mproving

hehue,

erhaps,

utnot

hewholesomeness.

(BC,

p.

228)

Francesco

wants opoison

Delano.

7

Elizabeth S.

Foster,

"Introduction,"

The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade

(New

York,

I954),

p.

iv.




9/12

Notes

563

IV

Inthe verall esignf he torysa patternfpoliticalmplica-

tion, think hatwhat

Melville ad n

mind

was something

ike he

following.

he slave wner, randa,

hose

halky

keleton

s

con-

cealed nder

he igurehead

sanunspoken

arningo the

emain-

ing Spaniards,

aving n thefirstnstance

dopted

herepressive

institution

f lavery,ailed

okeepupthe epression

equisiteo

the

nature f

the ystem.ecause

e wasa generous

aster nd gave

the laves reedomf he

eck he wasobviously

enighted

n

some-

what the

manner f Delano), the

massacre ccurred.

randa's

generosityepresentselville'snvisioning,t the imehe tory as

written,

voluntary,otwar-induced

reeingf the laves y

the

South. ut

he saw hat he

roblem ould ot nd

with he bolition

ofthe

nstitution,or he

ontinuedresence

fthe

blackswhen

he

restraints

eregonewouldbe a danger.

n the

"Supplement"o

Battle-Pieces

elvillepoke f

.

. .the unprecedented

osition f theSoutherners-their

osition

s

regards hemillions f ignorant

anumitted

laves n theirmidst,

or

whom some of us now claimthe suffrage.... In one pointof view the

coexistence

f the wo racesn theSouth-whether

henegro e bound

or

free-seems

even as it did to Abraham

incoln)8 a graveevil.

Emancipationas ridded

he ountryf

thereproach,utnotwholly

f

the

alamity.9

Once

he

has finally

een he ruth,elanocomes

o the

id of

the paniards. fter gory

attle he

blacks requelled.Attacking

the

blacks,

ven houghheir avage

ebellionccurred

nresponse

totheir avagemistreatment,eemed atural o Delano;for who

8

For example, in an

address of October i6,

I854,

Lincoln said that his own

first

impulse would

be

"to

free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia ...." However,

he

went on to say that was

at present a practical impossibility,

though he entertained "high

hope" for t "in the long run."

He continued thus:

What then? Free them all, and keep them among

us as underlings? Is it

quite

certain that this betters their condition? I think

I

would not hold one

in slavery,

at any rate; yet the point

is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon.

What

next? Free them, and

make them politically and

socially, our equals? My own

feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would,

we well know that those of the

great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and

sound judgment,

is not the

sole

question, if indeed,

it is

any part

of

it.

A

universal

feeling, whether well or ill-founded,

can

not be

safely disregarded. We

can

not,

then,

make

them equals. (Roy P. Basler, ed.,

The Collected

Works

of

Abraham

Lincoln, New Brunswick, N. J., 953, II, 255-256.)

9

Herman Melville, Poems

by Herman Melville (New York, I963),

p.

I87.




10/12

564

AmericanLiterature

ever eard f

white o far

renegade

s toapostatize

rom is

very

species

lmost,

y eaguingn

againstt

with egroes

"

(BC, p. 13).

Delanoprevents,generalmassacreftheblacks n reprisalythe

remaining

paniards,

erhaps

uggestinghat

n the

Southgeno-

cide

s a near

possibility.

f thatwas

whatMelville

ad n

mind-

after

hewar

he wouldworry

hatNorthernigor

gainst

he outh,

the misrule

ftertrife"e

speaks

f n Clarel IV, v.,49), might

provoke

exterminating

atred

frace oward

ace"10-he

ould ite

good uthority.

efferson

adspoken

fthe

deep ooted rejudices

entertainedy

the

whites,"he ten

housandecollections,

ythe

blacks, f the njuriesheyhave sustained,"distinctionshich

nature asmade;

nd many ther onvulsions,

hichwillprobably

never ndbut n the

xtermination

fouror

ofthe ther ace."11

n

any vent,

civilizations done

or; nd

t srepresented

y

Cereno.

The

bloody

prising

f

the

blacks, owever,

erely

astens

he

working

f

a

decadence

ongsince

egun, f which

Aranda's

n-

dulgencefthe

laves

wasbut terminal

ymptom.

ot ong

before

Cereno's

eath,

elano

nsists

o Cereno,

.

. .

you

re

saved:

what

hascast uch shadow ponyou?"Cereno'snswers not he x-

pected

Babo,"

ut atherThe

negro"

BC,

p.

258).

V

Perhaps

vents

f

our own

time

may

be taken

ohaveverified

the

rophecy

nherent

n

Babo's

tatement

uringhe

havingcene:

"And

yetmaster nows

never

ethavedrawn

lood,

hought's

true,fmaster illshake o,I may someof these imes." ven

Delano, or

moment,ould

hardly

resisthevagary,

hat

n

the

black

he

saw

a

headsman,

nd n thewhite

man t the lock.

ut

thiswas one of those ntic

onceits,ppearing

nd vanishing

n

a

breath,romwhich

erhaps,

hebest egulated

ind

s not lways

free"

BC,

p.

224).

Shortly

efore ttering

hat omprehensive

The

negro,"

ereno

choesentiments

xpressedn

Mardi

whenMelville

wrote f

the

laveryroblem:

Easy t s to stand

far ndrail,"

ut

"not nemanknows presentemedy"-includingranda s

well

as

Delano. he "knot"

s

ndeed

nextricable.ereno ays fDelano's

10Poems,

p. i87.

11

Matthew

T.

Mellon,

Early

American

Views on Negro

Slavery

(New York,

1969),

p.

I04.




11/12

Notes

565

deception

y ppearances,

hich ed

to hisgrappling

iolentlyith

Cerenowhen

Cereno eaped

forhis life nto

Delano'shousehold

boat:

.

.

.

your ast act was to clutch

for

monster, ot only an

innocentman,

butthe

most itiable

f allmen.To

suchdegreemaymalign

machina-

tions nddeceptionsmpose.

o farmay ven he

best

man rr,

n

udging

theconduct f one with he

recessesf whose

ondition

e

is

not

ac-

quainted.

BC, p. 258)

Delano

truly eplies o this

peech, You

generalize

..." And

Delanoalso correctlyays hat acuteness ight avecostme my

life." loser o

whatwasactually

o happen istorically,

hough,

s

hisrecognition

hat my

nterferencesight

ave nded nhappily

enough" BC,

pp. 258,257).

During almost

he entire ime

of the story

elano "is operated

upon

by certain eneral

notions

which,while disconnecting

ain

and abashment

romvirtue,

nvariably

inkthemwith

vice"

(BC,

p.

2IO).

After he Civil

War, as in the antebellum

Mardi,

Melville

would stillbe concernedo say thatthe Southwas "less fortunate,

not ess

righteoushanwe

.

*."

But proceedingrom

eelings

f

self-righteousness,he Yankee

Delano

thinks: There

was

a differ-

ence

between

he idea of

Don Benito's

i.e., the

South's]darkly

preordaining

aptain Delano's

fate, nd

CaptainDelano's

[i.e.,

the

North's,

r of certain epresentatives

f theNorth] ightly

rranging

Don

Benito's"BC,

p. 207).

The wastedCereno

xpireshortly

fter

the

xecution f

Babo, nd his death

gives

nothermeaning

o Babo's

scrawl-Follow your Leader-beneath

the

shroudedskeleton

of

Aranda.Now Babo's slogan,Vtsidesuggestinghe mplied hreato

the

remaining

hites,alls up Cereno's

ated ollowing

f his

friend

Aranda-in body, pirit,

nd,

n terms

f

the political

mplications,

form.

hat is,

Cereno, heemblem

f the

civilization f

the

laVc-

holdingSouth, ollowsAranda,

he emblem

f

the slave-holder,

o

death.

After he war, Melville

said regarding

he South as

"the

fated

inheritors"

f

slavery-"to

reat f

humanactions s to

deal wholly

with econd

auses.""13

n The Confidence-Manhe greatpretender,

disguiseds

theNegrocripple,

lackGuinea,

wails to

a

drover,

Oh

12

Poems,

p.

I85-

13

Ibid.,

pp.

I85,

I84-




12/12

566

American

Literature

sar, am der dog widoutmassa." Dogs withoutmasters arehard,"

replies hedrover, ho goes on to ask him wherehe sleeps t night.

"On derfloor fdergood baker's ven, ar."The drover nswers,

"In

an

oven?

whose, ray?Whatbaker, should ike to know,

akes

such black bread n his oven, longside f his nice whiterolls, oo.

Who

is that too charitablebaker, pray

"14

A

man

called

Malcolm

X

was one day to employ n oven analogy n answering latter ay

species

f

Delano, who

had

protestedo

him

that,

fter

ll,

we

are

all "Americans."Malcolm X's subjective eply to that subjective

judgment uggests hathuman ubjectivity,hichcausedsuchdiffi-

culty n interpretinghe events board the San Dominick, shall

remain source f muchhumandisorder:

A

cat

can

have

kittens

n

the

oven,

but thatdon't

make em

biscuits."

14The Confidence-Man,.

I6.

Painting nd

Europe

in The

American

SUSAN P.

WARD

Durham,North Carolina

CRITICISM

OF The American

as

concentratednsuch

ssues s its

place n the

development

f the

nternationalovel,1 he

extent

to which

t is romantic ather

hanrealistic,2

r

the

validity

nd

consistencyf its

characters.3o one has

treated

s significanthe

relation

etween

tsthemes nd its

structure.his

omission

s sur-

prising

n

light

of the attentionorm

receives

n

the

criticism f

otherJames ovels, ornoone ofhis early ovels etterllustrateshe

author's

bility o

so interrelate

he partsof his

story

hat their

separate

meaningswhen

oined take

on

a

fuller

ignificance. he

American

xemplifieshisunity

specially

well as its

theme f es-

thetic

ppreciation

lluminates

ames's

onstructionf the

plot.The

1

Oscar

Cargill,

"The First

International

Novel,"

PMLA,

LXXIII

(Sept.,

I958),

4I8-425.

2

Two

examples

are: George

Knox,

"Romance and

Fable in James'

American," Anglia,

LXXXIII

(Autumn, I965),

308-323; and M. F.

Schulz,

"The Bellegardes'

Feud With

Christopher

Newman,"

American

Literature, XXVII

(March,

I955), 42-55.

3

For instance:

Isadore

Traschen, "James's

Revision of

the Love Affair

n

The

American,"

New

England

Quar-terly, XIX

(March,

I956), 43-62; and F. C.

Watkins,

"Christopher

Newman's Final

Instinct,"

Nineteenth

CentutyFiction,

XII

(June, 1957),

85-88.

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The Politics of Race in Benito Cereno

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