Irony and Racial Uniqueness in Benito Cereno

Herman Melville was born in New York in 1819 so he grew up in a time where slavery was still common and accepted, but in an area in which blacks were treated with much more respect than they were in the south. His father 's relatives could be traced back to a man who was a part of the Boston Tea Party and both his mother and father had relatives who fought with the union in the Revolutionary war (Johnson). Melville had many jobs growing up, including teaching, being a bank clerk, and sailing on a whaling ship, which is what jump started his writing career (Johnson). Many of the stories that Melville writes take place out on the sea and tend to be quite adventurous and unexpected, much like Benito Cereno. This style is more than likely inspired by the number of his jobs being on ships growing up. These factors greatly influence the way he writes, especially relating to race in Benito Cereno. Benito Cereno is about an American whaling ship that comes across a Spanish slave boat that has been secretly taken over by the slaves. The majority of the story involves the captain roaming the ship and being quite suspicious with what is going on, but he never catches on to anything, until the very end when it is revealed the slaves are actually in control of the ship.. This story has many reoccurring elements of racial grayness and foreshadowing that occurs thought the entire story. Herman Melville 's unique take on race in Benito Cereno shows that both races, black and white, share a "gray area" of personalities that are rarely observed. Benito Cereno begins near a harbor at the southern tip of Chili in 1799 on an American whaling ship, the Bachelors Delight. Amaso Delano, Captain of the Bachelors Delight, notices in the distance a ragged and beat-up looking ship, this ship is known as the San Dominick. Upon stepping foot on the ship he is immediately greeted both by white sailors and black slaves, including Captain Benito Cereno and his personal slave, Babo. The ship

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