While the stories of Melville juxtapose a ferocious wilderness(in these cases the sea) with the powerlessness and naivety of man, in the subtext are powerful racial messages which explain the complex nature of the northern intellectual. It has been established that Benito Cereno offers no black voice and The Encantadas describes what would happen with a ship (island) with a black captain(leader). Though the texts general conception of slavery is negative, the reader sees that any affection for blacks or slaves in the story are patriarchal and infantilizing. After all, the Captain figure is a representation of whites, and their rightful place in society. Though not a rabid racist, Melville embodies a a distinctly northern brand of racism. He patronizes the slaves; admires their noble support of the ship, and captain, which, when looked at metaphorically can be viewed as a wholly pro-slavery argument, as the black's very support of the ship is a propagation of the system that has them as slave and white as master. Though Melville may have been ahead of his time in identifying American naivety, effects of American imperialism, and colonization, he also embodies that naivety in his racial discourse.
Please remember to post with your last name Sugure Melville and Racial etc.
ReplyDeleteMelville isn't really being racist; in fact, since Delano actually mistrusts Cereno, his sympathies and his judgement tell him that the slave ship captain is to be mistrusted because he deals with slavery.