benito cereno essay

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Choose one of the topics, I think 1 is the best.

It is often all too easy to return to a colonialist ideology when attempting to understand post-colonial realities. Colonial structures of oppression and domination frequently resurface in a post colonial period. The repetition of oppression often comes in the form of blaming the victim. Fanon warns us against this return of the Master/Slave dialectic in the form of neo-imperialism (pp 95-106). In addition, the native is blamed for the cultural and economic gap between the colonized and the colonizer. Moreover, the natives often return to old structures of oppression from which they have just broken free. In the following paper topics you will be ask to employ your theoretical understanding concerning the two roles colonizer/colonized or settler/native in analyzing the Herman Melville?s narrative of ?Benito Cereno.? 1) How does the world in gray operate as a metaphor for the moral ambiguity of Captain Delano?s intentions concerning Don Benito and Babo and the fate of the San Dominick? You should consider the narrator?s comments about Delano and what those comments imply about his real project in helping the San Dominick. You should discuss Delano?s assumptions about the condition of the ship and people he meets on board. Explain how his assumptions define his character for us and allow him to ignore the lesson Don Benito was forced to learn. Finally, you must use Fanon to support your argument. You may also use Fanon to link Delano?s actions to the imperialist actions of a neo-colonial nation.

2) Some critics read Babo as evil personified while others read him as a freedom fighter. To help you think through your position in this debate, use Fanon to examine Babo?s character (you may also use and Hegel). Does the figure of Babo provide us with an example of a native who has discovered that his life and breath are ?the same as those of the settler? (Fanon 45)? Is he a revolutionary who has nothing to lose and everything to gain or has he, as Caliban before him, missed the mark, and if so how? You must use Fanon as a secondary source to support you argument.