The Knot Symbol Analysis

The convoluted knot that Captain Delano sees a sailor tying aboard the San Dominick highlights the tense and seemingly unsolvable social situation that a slave society engenders. On the ship, Delano sees a Spanish sailor tie a knot made of various individual knots. The sailor says that he is making a knot for someone to undo and he then throws it to Delano, telling him to cut it. Finally, a slave intervenes and throws the knot into the ocean. This whole scene suggests that what is happening on the San Dominick is infinitely more complex and convoluted than Delano is able to recognize. The knot highlights the layers of dependence and oppression that everyone onboard is “tied up” in, as slave-owners metaphorically (and sometimes physically) tie their slaves. A slave revolt then reverses this relationship, creating new “knots.” This alternation of various forms of oppression creates a seemingly unsolvable “knot” in which victims and perpetrators, and causes and consequences, are not easily identifiable. The sailor’s demand that Delano cut the knot mirrors the slave’s decision to throw it into the ocean: both of them think that, instead of untying the knot, which would require much patience and energy, it is easier to simply destroy it, thus erasing the convoluted past of injustice. However, this does not actually solve the root of the problem, but simply leads to new cycles of violence. Delano’s cluelessness throughout this whole scene suggests that he will neither be able to untie the knot nor to cut it—and, therefore, that the “knot” of racism, slavery and injustice will remain active unless someone actually decides to tackle the problem head-on.