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Dusky comments of silence: language, race and Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno."

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From: Studies in Short Fiction
Date: 19950101
Author:Jones, Gavin

Herman Melville may have idealized the cultural sophistication of African slaves in his short story 'Benito Cereno.' This tale of a mutiny on a slaving ship depicts the slaves, who are known to be from different African cultures, as having acquired a cultural homogeneity by learning to speak one language, Spanish. Meanwhile, the captain himself reverts to cultural isolationism when he begins to speak in Portuguese.

Eric J. Sundquist's discussion of "Benito Cereno" (1855) in To Wake the Nations (1993) places Melville's tale convincingly within the context of the debate over slavery and the ...

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