Herman Melville depicts slavery in his novella Benito Cereno as a violent and dehumanizing act. I believe Melville depicted slavery in its most realistic and explicit regard which is brutal, barbaric and dark. Melville was able to present the slaves suppression of anger and resentment, which was depicted primarily by Babo’s character and his extreme retaliation plan on his master Cereno. The novella depicts enslavement in a negative light, Melville suggests that slavery encourages malevolence when Delano says, “Ah this slavery breeds ugly passions in man.” Melville is highlighting the idea that the enslavement of man ignited the violent killing spree that took place in the ship. At the conclusion of the novella, I sympathized with Babo. Although Babo essentially acted in a cruel and violent manner much like Cereno and the slave-owners, he only did it for justice for him and the slaves. I also sympathized with Babo at the end of the novella because of his death which I thought was a tragedy because Babo consequently for fighting for his freedom and release, was killed. Delano’s blindness in the novella highlights the ignorance and dehumanization that existed in the period of slavery. Delano is wary of Babo’s character throughout the novella, but continues to brush-off any of his suspicions brought up by Babo’s questionable actions. This represents the oppression of slaves and the degradation slaves faced by their owners because they could not possibly be painted as logical, cunning humans, but as objects only existing to serve their masters.

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