Benito Cereno turned reading into work. Having to work to get through all the ramblings on over descriptions and those long winded redundent sentences that should have been written in maybe half as many words to get the same effect. It was hard. You all know what I'm talking about-right? l hope so. Well that wasn't the worst part. No, no where near it. I found it disturbingly hard to watch Captin Delano walk this ship and completly not understand what was going on. that was the hardest part. I mean everywhere he turned there was clue being given to him in the form of the language between Babo and Don Benito, or the way Atufal and Don Benito were interacting with one another or the way in which the other people on board the ship were interacting among each other including Captain Delano, himself. And this whole time there on board he's walking around like wow, he's clueless. Alright, I saw how he might have thought something was up and was trying to figure it out. but come on, he had no clue. Seriously. Look , by the end of his visit his biggest concern was that Don Benito was going to dis him and not come aboard his ship for dinner. How rude of the poor, sickly, hostage. How dare this man not be as polite as the gentleman Captain Delano. I mean after all the charitable efforts given to Don Benito on the behalf of this great Captain Delano. The least he could do was come abord and have a little dinner with the guy. right, that was his real concern. Not that this Don Benito was being held hostage by a band of mutinus passengers. or that maybe he might be next, Captain Delano and his crew, of the same fate if it wasn't for the defiance of Don Benito to try and save himself and Captain Delano.There were a lot of clues that I saw and was hoping Captain Delano saw also. But he didn't. My favorite example or quote if you may is a small exchange between the good captain and this old knotter on Don benito's ship.
"What are you knotting there, my man?"
"The knot," was the brief reply, without looking up.
"So it seems; but what is it for?"
"For some one else to undo," muttered back the old man, plying his fingers harder than ever, the knot being now nearly completed.
While Captain Delano stood watching him, suddenly the old man threw the knot towards him, saying in broken English-the first heard in the ship-something to this effect: "Undo it, cut it, quick." It was said lowly, but with such condensation of rapidity, that the long, slow words in Spanish, which had preceded and followed, almost operated as covers to the brief English between. (Melville 506).
Well the only great relief about this story and in reading about this poor clueless fellow I guess is seeing this type of stupidity and being thankful its in a work of fiction. I mean lets be thankful that there is no one that cluelss who has any real power in the world we live in. Right?