Blog post #6

After I finished reading the novella “Benito Cerino”. The author Herman Melville (Herman Melville) described black slavery as a cruel and inhuman act. The author described a failed slave uprising on Saint Dominic. There are three main characters in this novel, they are the white captive Cereno, the white commander Delano and the black slave Gbagbo. The author focuses on the description of Gbagbo because he captured Cereno and launched an uprising, wanting to restore the personal freedom of all slaves. When Captain Delano visits, Gbagbo always stands by Cereno, reminding and threatening him to keep secrets. But in the end, Delano discovered the rebellion, and he and his men fought against slaves. At the end of the story, Babo was killed for breaking the law; Cereno died of insanity and torture. Both of them ended tragically. Through a comprehensive reading of the entire novella, it is not difficult to see that the author expressed slavery in a negative light. From the perspective of the complex relationship between these three characters, the author presents a description of the severe segregation between whites and blacks at that time and the social status of these two races at the time. The purpose of the black slave uprising was not only to resist but to prove that both whites and blacks should be indistinguishable from humans. They wanted to find a way to pursue their freedom. Personally, the true meaning of this story is that everyone should learn that there is zero-tolerance for racial discrimination. In the period of slavery described in the novel, the reason why Baba organized this uprising was simply that he wanted freedom. Because as a human, he can’t even control his life. As a slave, he can only be controlled by his master and treated as goods. Although he resisted, his resistance was ultimately futile. I can feel how much Babo desires to be free. White people think that black people should only serve them. I think this is due to the social background at that time, slaves have no rights and freedom at all. But we live in the same world. We now have equal rights for everyone to fight for our future and share the same opportunities to achieve our goals. Such freedom and equality are the most precious things that those people who lived in the period of slavery longed for but could not get. Now everyone should protect everyone from being treated equally, and we should resist racial discrimination and protect our freedom. I sympathize with the domestic slaves who were forced to leave them. They should live peacefully with their families and enjoy life, but racial discrimination and man-made destruction have ruined the good life they should have belonged to them. Therefore I think all lives are important, and we should resist all racial discrimination and unfair treatment.