Christopherson, Upon Review All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Melville's collection of short stories "The Encantadas" and the story "Benito Cereno" share a similar theme. That is the theme of illusion. Both stories offer illusions to the reader, and then later on a more desolate stark reality is revealed by Melville about what is really happening in the story. In "Cereno" a trusting ship captain comes upon a lone ship floating near the island of Santa Maria. After boarding the ship, Captain Delano only finds that the situation becomes more mysterious. The ship seems nearly abandoned save for a scraggly, weary crew, their bizarre Captain Benito Cereno, and the slaves that were being transported from Buenos Aires to Lima. Delano tries to investigate how the ship came to be so far off course but suspicions keep creeping up on Delano about this mysterious ship and its crew. Being what we assume is simply Delano's trusting nature (perhaps his nature is an allusion to American innocence or naivety) however he dismisses the suspicions that keep telling him something is amiss about this ship. Eventually Delano's suspicions are realized, not by him, but by Cereno when he finally leaps into Delano's boat for help. We then find out that Cereno and his crew are the slaves' puppets. Turns out the slaves revolted while at sea and took control of the ship and the slave who had so carefully and calculatingly pretended to be Cereno's personal servant, Babo is the one pulling the strings. Innocence by the way of trust is alluded to many times throughout the story. Cereno seems so dependent on his faithful servant Babo, Delano boards a strange ship and sees many peculiar things aboard but ignores creeping suspicions, at the end Cereno takes a "leap of faith" literally by jumping into Delano's boat and escaping his captors. All of these moments of trust point to American innocence as a sort of gamble. I would not say that Melville necessarily argues either for or against the idea of American innocence but simply examines each side, saying this is what can happen if you remain innocent (revolution) but if you are not somewhat innocent you can find yourself in just as much trouble (if Delano had pushed too much too soon to figure out exactly what was going on on the San Dominick both he and Cereno would have been killed by the slaves immediately).


As for "Encantadas" Melville presents them in a way that truly is enchanting and alluring, even though the Galapagos Islands themselves are not really all that wonderful, ie what seems to be golden at first is actually a desolate island full of tortoises. Melville weaves his experiences and fiction to create an intriguing account of the string of islands. To the reader who had never experienced these islands for themselves (they are innocent of real knowledge of the islands) Melville's accounts are wonderful and interesting but to a person who is knowledgeable of the islands (ask Hullina if she likes them). So we see in these two stories how Melville reveals to the reader both sides of innocence. The good, the bad, and the not so enchanting.