WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR CAPTAIN DELANO TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON?
He is obviously naive and very trusting. He is liberal minded and wants to
see the best in everyone, even the slaves. That much is obvious from
the text. But he has numerous clues... the gorgon knot, the shaving
incident, and the incident with the two boys! What exactly is Melville
saying about NewEnglanders? :) Well I think that he is commenting on the innocence and naivety of New England as a whole. He is SO bad at reading people! He compliments Babo for being so faithful to his master, yet it turns out that Babo is the mastermind behind a murderous plot.
Here is what I think. Delano is blind to the idea that the blacks on the ship are intellegent. The admiration that Delano voices for Babo and the others is but a shade for the real racism that is rooted within him. He compares Babo to a "shepherd's dog," and the entire group of slaves are Benito's "little black sheep." So he is a racist masked by his liberal, trusting attitude.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment