Benito Cereno is often cited as a powerful statement on enslavement in the U.S. Now that you have finished the novella, what are your thoughts about how Herman Melville depicted this practice? Does the novella depict enslavement in a negative or a positive light? Who do we sympathize with at the conclusion of the story? What should we make of Delano’s blindness?

Ans: Delano’s blindness is not able to recognize fully. He was there to help also and he was thinking something else also. Ans also, through out the story, Delano was not clearly aware about what was wrong with San Dominick because Delano doesn’t understand the story of the Cereno as he doesn’t quite add up. Even Herman Melville through the story depiction of Delano’s articulate blindness to the slaves potential to act violently and it is less clear what picture of dark character we end with. Melville does not think the complications are completely opened and clear from the reality that he does not end the story there. Instead, he combine a totally unreliable trade between Cereno and Delano follow  to the recovering of the dispatch, in which Delano endeavors to induce Cereno to move past what has happened and Cereno answers that he will never be able to avoid the shadow cast by slaves upon his life. Hence, I don’t think we do sympathize to anyone with at the conclusion of the story.

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