February 23, 2007

Herman Melville's Benito Cereno was one of the first American mysteries that invited readers to figure out the suspenseful endings or surprise twist. Melville's protagonist, Captain Delano, lays out the foundation for the generic heroes in modern day scary movies and stories. Throughout the entire novel Delano is seen as the overly naive protagonist that the audience know will eventually save the day. Many readers can figure out the ending earlier on, and so they spend much of the novel hoping that the Captain will soon find out the secret behind this mysterious ship. It has the feel of the "I know who the killer is" or the "He's right behind you, run!" moments in the scary movies and novels. Readers find themselves wanting to jump in and tell Delano what is going on without completely ruining the plot of the novel.
The novel is also surprising in the actual subject matter that it covers. I find it incredibly surprising that Melville to the chance to write about something that was probably a fear of many people during his time period. The slave trade was a booming conglomerate during his time, and millions of dollars in revenue were made from the sale of slaves and the actual labor they provided was the backbone of the early American economy. The idea of slaves killing their owner and revolting on-board a ship was probably a more than taboo idea for slave captors as they would be the victim of this presumably violent revolts, and the plantation owners would fear this for the loss of thousands of dollars because of the unattained slaves.
Melville's audience would have found this story incredibly scary because it plays on the fears of the people during his time period. Readers during this time may feel a different sentiment. I feel for the protagonist because he goes out to the slave ship out of curiousity and an genuine desire to help. However, the act of the slaves revolting is almost a bit of poetic justice. They were taken by force into slavery, and were able to take their freedom back by that same force.