Herman Mellville

Delano, the (narrator) captain of a whaling ship, sees a ship coming towards the island and goes over to investigate. He becomes fascinated with the mystery of the ship and boards the ship. He becomes accosted by slaves begging for food and water. He meets the captain of the ship, Benito Cereno, a strange man who seems very nervous and aloof. Delano thinks Benito's behavior to be strange, but he dismisses his suspicions. Cereno is constantly attended by Babo, his servant, who acts suspiciously as well. Delano inquires as to what happened to the ship, and Benito tells him the story of how the ship struck heavy winds and became ravaged. Delano often feels that there is something going on on the ship, but he repeatedly dismisses his suspicions. He begins to suspect that Cereno may have plans to attack him and capture his own ship. He attempts to speak to another sailor, but this sailor only confuses him by asking him to untie a knot. Delano again ignores the strangeness of the situation. Instead, he pilots the ship towards his own. As they arrive, Babo attempts to attack Cereno with a dagger, but Delano's men stop him.

In the rest of the story, the truth about what happened on the ship is revealed at a court deposition. The slaves had revolted, under the leadership of Babo and Atufal, killing much of the spanish crew and seizing control over the ship. Babo gave Cereno a story to tell once they saw Delano's ship, and he threatened him to stick to it. At the end of the trial, Babo is executed. Cereno falls into a deep misery and a few months later, he dies.

• Central drama is Delano's failure to interpret what is going on on the ship
• Study of the failure of perception and interpretation -Delano is presented with a number of things to interpret and he fails to do so
• Tests our own ability to interpret
• Test of Delano - the knot:
  • "Knots in his brain" - he can't solve the riddle
  • Puzzle pieces
• Incommunicability - truth may be too horrible to express, Benito only speaks in riddles that Delano cannot understand
• Everything on the ship is constructed
• Slavery as a system destroys both master and slave, Benito and Babo

• Narrator of the story
• Optimistic, avoids dark recognition
• Ignores signs of inhumanity
• Inability to confront inhumanity
• Not necessarily stupid, just innocent
• Self-blinding, knows what he doesn't want to know
• Innocence as a form of ignorance
• Inability to read the past, learn from it
• Idea that instead of dealing with it, you should forget the past

Emerson

• The american scholar in relation to nature
• "one man" is the unity of all of society working as one, with no body more important than the next
• All people as part of a whole
• Man's responsibility is "Man Thinking" - obligation to see the world as it is and not as influenced by tradition or history
• Must investigate and understand nature
• Must take action, interact with the world

Thoreau’s essay that remains one of the strongest statements in American Literature about an individual’s responsibility to be a “voice of one” when that person believes the government or any institution is morally wrong.

• Motivated by the disgust with slavery
• Governments are typically more harmful than helpful
• Country needs conscience 
• Gov't as a primary agent of corruption
• Newspapers - annoyance
• Conscience > law
• Majority = more powerful, not necessarily more right
• People should have the courage to go against the grain if conscience does not overlap with government
• Individualism over allegiance to government (personal values are more important)

Henry David Thoreau

• Value of living free and uncommitted
• Takes to the woods, dreams of a life free of commitments 
• Feels godlike on his property, even if it is flawed and largely imperfect
• Walden is almost a reenactment of God creating the world
• Divine freedom of time
• Idea that everyone can create their own world
• Spends a lot of time reading, gives mystical importance to the printed word, reads in original language, doesn't believe in translations
• Urges the reader to read as well
• Not only the bible, also entertainment
• Mental nourishment
• Immaterial, heavenly house

• Idea that nothing is permanent or fixed, open to new things in the future than could essentially refute the past. Nothing is true or false, everything can change (Circles)
• Against fixing of love or expression, nothing is permanent except the self, so self-reliance is key, avoid making yourself prisoner of yourself (Circles)
• Self-improvement by letting go of the past (Delano?) Move past the confining self-awareness and self-control (Circles)
• Similarities to Douglass (American individualism, self-reliance, self-culture, spiritual and intellectual examples of freedom, selfhood achieved through writing)
• Promotion of radical individualism and real free-thinking, freedom from previously defined roles, tradition, etc
• Emerson tries to engage the reader in thought, the process of reading is worth more than the meaning of what is being read
• Ever expanding circles in life - flowing, mobility in thought, constant metamorphosis
• Nothing is sacred, nothing is limited
• In nature, every moment is new
• Importance of trusting one's self enough to let go of self-control
• Stresses importance of letting go of the past, personal or historical
• Personal experiences of the divine, not traditional or conventional experiences