Benito Cereno's Narrative Voice

In a divided society on the cusp of civil war, the controversial issue of slavery was one that pervaded throughout all facets of United States politics, resulting in a large scale debate that stretched across almost every aspect of American life. The literature of the time was no different in that regard, easily becoming a medium in which several authors saw fit to reach an audience on the social matter at hand. However, while some saw fit to employ an emotional appeal with the hope of changing a reader’s stance on the issue, others instead merely wanted to focus on the discussion of the moral topic of slavery itself, illustrating the sometimes opposing viewpoints present of the time. Thus, in order to fully understand the varying attitudes

This attitude is best seen when the narration opts to describe the slaves as one might a buyable product, depicting them as predisposed to working while still maintaining a cheerful disposition, with “most negroes [being] natural valets and hair-dressers” (Melville 212). Even more so than this, whereas the narrative voice of The Heroic Slave could be seen as an extension of Douglass’s personal pro-abolitionist views, the one in Benito Cereno is notably separate from Melville as an author, as his own opinions on the matter of slavery are still far too murky to pinpoint as easily. Thus, it is safe to say that, rather than being the voice of the author, the narration in Melville’s work is more of its own character, one with a perspective different from that of the white protagonist as well. With this, another layer of ambiguity is added within the context of the story, especially when, at the climax, the narrator is proven wrong in the assumption that Babo is a simpleminded servant. Yet, while The Heroic Slave goes to great lengths to remind the audience of the Madison’s humanity through soliloquies and lengthy descriptions, Benito Cereno instead presents Babo as he is, never going into depth about his own personal emotions, thus forcing the readers to form their own assumptions as they would in