Discussion of Benito Cereno

By reading through the novella ” Benito Cereno”, I reckon that it has a tragic ending. No one is the gainer throughout the entire story. The author, Herman Melville, depicts that enslavement is a movement that is brutal and inhumane. There are three main characters involved in this novella, which are the white captive Cereno, the white commander Delano and the smart black slave Babo. By describing Babo, the author has mentioned that Babo captures Cereno and initiate this uprising in order to recover all slaves’ freedom. However, the white commander Delano, who is considered as a rich-experienced white captain, has been described as a rescuer to save his life and other Spanish sailor’s lives from the revolt black slaves. In the end of the story, Babo was killed due to violation to law; and Cereno was dead since he suffered from mental disorder and torture.  Both of them ended up with sad ending. With more comprehensive reading of the entire novella, it is not difficult to tell that the author expresses slavery as a negative light. From the relationship between those three characters, the author shows the severe segregation of whites and black and the description of the social status of those two racial groups at that period of time. The purpose of the uprising of the black slaves is not only to fight back and prove that there is no difference between whites and black, but also they want to find a way to pursue their own freedom. Personally speaking, the true meaning about this story that everyone should learn  is that there is zero tolerance on racial discrimination. We live in the same world. We have same rights to fight for our future and share the same opportunities in order to achieve our goals. Nobody is inferior to anyone, and no one should have more power over anyone. We are the same. Everyone should be treated equally and deserve to live in the way they admire. In this story, I show sympathy to those slavery who are forced to move away from their families and homes. They should live peacefully with their families and enjoy their lives, but someone destroy all the good things from them, which I find it is extremely cruel, unethical and inhumane.