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Unreliable Narrator
Explanation and Analysis—The Shrewder Race:
Captain Delano of Benito Cereno is in many regards a classic example of an unreliable narrator, whose reporting of the events of the story is often biased by his own assumptions, prejudices, and motivations. At various points in the story, his narration seems inaccurate or biased by his own perspective. In particular, his condescending and racist attitudes towards the enslaved individuals on the San Dominick colors, or even impedes, the reader’s understanding of what is happening on the ship. When he suspects that Captain Cereno is involved in some criminal conspiracy, his heavily biased account reflects his status as an unreliable narrator:
The whites, too, by nature, were the shrewder race. A man with some evil design, would he not be likely to speak well of that stupidity which was blind to his depravity, and malign that intelligence from which it might not be hidden? Not unlikely, perhaps. But if the whites had dark secrets concerning Don Benito, could then Don Benito be any way in complicity with the blacks? But they were too stupid. Besides, who ever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize from his very species almost, by leaguing in against it with negroes?
Delano is struck by the fact that Captain Cereno appears to be very close to the enslaved Black individuals on the ship, while the white members of the crew appear to view him with suspicion. Believing that Cereno must be involved in some criminal enterprise, he assumes that Cereno must prefer to have Black company because, Delano believes, they are less intelligent and therefore more likely to be “blind” to his criminal activities. Following from this, he assumes that Cereno must resent his white crew because they are more intelligent, and therefore might discern his plan and expose him. He then wonders if Cereno might be “in complicity with the blacks,” but dismisses this possibility because he believes that Black people are “too stupid” to maintain a conspiracy. Here, as elsewhere in the story, Delano’s racist attitudes prevent him from understanding that a slave revolt has taken place on the ship and render his narration unreliable.
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