Herman Melville, "Benito Cereno", (1855).
"'Ah, master,' sighed the black, bowing his face, 'don't speak of me; Babo is nothing; what Babo has done was but duty.'
'Faithful fellow!' cried Capt. Delano. 'Don Benito, I envy you such a friend; slave I cannot call him'"
As master and slave stood before him, the black upholding the white, Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationship" (45).
The view that Capt. Delano has of Babo and Capt. Cereno is reminiscent of the propaganda images for Uncle Tom's Cabin. The sight of Babo as the perfect servant is one that neutralizes him as a threat, placing him in the position of an endearing figure, one that Capt. Delano indulgently calls 'friend', although we know that this is not a true friendship between equals..
The seeming docility and servility of Babo, as well as the apparent joy that he feels in doing his job well, work to endear him to Captain Delano, and the Captain makes a weak attempt to humanize him, although in an inherently unequal way.
These initial impressions of Babo lead Captain Delano, and subsequently us, to read Babo as a 'good black', a docile fellow who is completely and utterly fulfilled by his job. Babo is portrayed as achieving recognition of the whites through his good service, the only way through which a slave can earn the honorary, yet utterly false, label of 'friend'.
These terms of endearment are ultimately patronizing labels designed to perpetuate the ari of inequality between the races; the bestowal of this title upon Babo by Delano only serves to highlight that they could never indeed truly be 'friends'.
No comments:
Post a Comment