Captain Delano Rhetorical Analysis

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Captain Amasa Delano is an interesting personification of white contentment about slavery and it's endurance. Delano is a human metaphor for white sentimentality of the time. His deepest susceptibilities of order and hierarchy make it impossible for him to see the realities of slavery. Delano's blindness to the rebellion is a metaphor for his blindness to the moral immorality of slavery. The examination of Captain Delano's views of nature, beauty, and humanity, allow us to see his often-confusing system of hierarchical order, which cripples his ability to see the mutiny and the injustice of slavery.
After Delano believes that Benito Cereno cut his faithful slave on the cheek for shaving him improperly, Delano exclaims: "slavery breeds ugly …show more content…

Delano does think the relationship is beautiful, but he thinks it is beautiful because it presents a "spectacle of fidelity." The OED defines fidelity as "The quality of being faithful; faithfulness, loyalty, unswerving allegiance to a person, party, bond, etc." (OED) This quality is an integral part of Captain Delano's ideal system of order where the underlings are happy and grateful. Nothing could give Delano greater confidence in his system of order than the happiness of the lower class. Indeed the other reason he finds his perceived relationship of Babo and Benito so "beautiful" is just that: it presents a "spectacle …show more content…

63)
There is room in the captain's perspective for beauty and appreciation of those things he deems lower than himself, but it is never the abstract enjoyment of something for it's own qualities. His enjoyment comes from realizing that all is as it should be, that there is a manifestation of order in a relationship, in this case the relationship of a child needing its mother (yet another hierarchical relationship.)
Captain Delano's attitude towards his slaves could be called humane, but not human or humanitarian. He classified them with animals, and talked about them as if they were a wildlife documentary. He put arbitrary values on them, and Babo in particular whom he named a sum for. (p. 60-61) We see Delano's attitude towards blacks concentrated in his comment on Babo's conduct.
Marking the noisy indocility of the blacks in general, as well as what seemed the sullen inefficiency of the whites, it was not without humane satisfaction that Captain Delano witnessed the steady good conduct of Babo. (p.

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