Delano's Benito Cereno: Summary

I would recommend the book Benito Cereno to people who are interested in slavery because of the incisive imagery and the brutal cringe-worthy realities of the slaves-gatherings during that era allows the reader to picture the entire plot of the story. The book is narrated by a captain named Delano approaching a boat he became suspicious about because the ship barred no flag so Delano decided to assist the suspicious boat on boarding the bay. Upon Captain Delano’s arrival on the boat, he’s bombarded by the outcries of black and white men about their horrific travels. Delano meets the captain Bonito Cereno and his services are rudely rejected. Delano finally figures that the boat is perpetrated by the slave laborers and Benito is a prisoner. Delano helps guide the boat to the Americas and aids the weakened captain. An investigation is started after the arrival to the Americas to

When he invited Delano to the upper deck a violent clash between the young slave and his Spanish subordinate, Benito is questioned about how he runs his establishment to keep the slaves in charge by Delano. Benito doesn’t respond and Delano suspicion rises again. This stands out to me because Benito shows his true relationships with the slaves and rather being the protagonist of the story he falls into the control of the slaves he thinks of too stupid or dumb to take over the ship. This moment in the book really solidifies the ideology of the slavery era because it shows how little of intelligence or equality slaves or people of color had to white men. This is surprising because when Benito was asked about the slaves he tried to remember the story one of his slaves --- Babo told him about the American and was threatened when he was shown the bloody razor. Also, the dismissing of Delano’s suspicions were interesting because he his ideology was the same as