Literary Devices In Benito Cerreno

Herman Melville fills “Benito Cereno” with a perspective of classical America and uses a full spectrum of literary devices to criticize Captain Delano’s representation of 19th Century America. Melville indicates a plenty of detail, mostly visual and reflecting, to prepare for the fantastic revelation of Don Benito's confinement and the proved ignorance of Captain Delano. The rhetorical questions, imagery, and metaphors in “Benito Cereno” are crucial to the comparing of Captain Delano to the 19th Century America.
Delano continuously asks rhetorical questions about the slightly unusual behavior he finds the ship. He ignores the issue altogether to see the good in Don Benito and his crew, representing how America consistently questions the humanity

The mention of grey is repeated to give a feeling of a cold scene when setting is described as, “sky seemed a gray mantle… troubled gray fowl… flights of troubled gray vapours.”(Melville 110) The use of the color provokes a calm and quiet feeling with a clear but dingy picture. Repeatedly describing the surroundings as grey emphasizes a slow feeling that would soon quicken into a more dramatic situation or drag out for a lengthy pace. America spent a long time in the dark period of enslaving Africans into a ‘grey’ period when Americans were unsure how to treat African Americans. Later, Captain Delano examines the look of the Spaniard’s clothes he observes, “invariable adjunct… of a South American gentleman's dress,” (Melville 136) described to such detail, as though the American is looking at the clothes to find out what kind of man Cereno is. Though Delano observes, “contortions brought about disarray,” he contradicts himself with, “there was a certain precision in his attire.”(Melville 136) Delano can’t decide how he feels about those around him, as the classic America believes everyone has their own rights but the rights are only limited to certain groups of people, not including African