Great American?: An Essay on "Benito Cereno" by Herman Melville

Herman Melville is often praised as the greatest American novelist, although reading "Benito Cereno" the reader can discern a considerable critique of the society that embraces him. It is interesting to see such a critique come in a sometimes very subtle form. Captain Amasa Delano, who comes from Massachusetts, is our only American character in the novella and is portrayed in a stereotypical and often negative manner. It is through Captain Delano that the reader is given Melville's negative interpretation of who or what an American is. Delano is gullible, devoutly Protestant, trusting, rash and most importantly, proud. Melville critiques the widely held idea by Americans that the American culture is superior to those of the antiquated Old World.

One of the many things that all American children learn in school is that the United States, as colonies, were formed so that the religiously persecuted English could find freedom to practice their religions. Most of these sects were of the Christian variety and the most prominent is the Protestant religion, a form of Christianity that was not highly accepted in England. Many English readers at the time of publication in 1855-1856, and now, would be able to pick up on the many references to the Christian foundation of the American culture. One very clear example of this Christian background is when Delano is talking to Cereno about the events that passed and he admits, "Yes, all is owing to Providence" (224). This view that all Americans are Christians is not necessarily a negative statement, but in the context of the other critiques Melville gives in his novella, it is a negative critique. It is quite stereotypical, even in the days of the publication when other religions such as Catholicism and Judaism were practiced and many sects of Christianity, all with different emphasized values and beliefs, existed. And, the Protestant values of America were thought by most Americans to be superior to the Catholicism of the Old World, here represented by the Spaniard Cereno, because of its charity and other qualities.