I'm glad i don't have to be a spoiler!

Hey everyone! So, welcome to the end of the book! I can't tell you how relieved i am not to worry about ruining the ending for everyone. So, what did you think? I really enjoyed getting to read it for a second (soon to be third-- such joy!) time. I remember reading it last year and not fully wrapping my head around the characters. This time around i still find myself perplexed by some and newly impressed by others.

Delano's inability to see things for what they are is incredibly infuriating. He is kind of like a child in a way-- in that he's taking in all of the information of his surroundings but not knowing how to put them together in a way that makes sense. Or better yet, it's like having a jigsaw that has one piece left and Delano keeps trying to fit it in upside down. He even goes so far as to list everything he finds strange (on the bottom of page 79) about the ship...but manages to shrug it off. One has to really admire that sort of profound density.

I found myself enjoying Babo much more this time around. And, i'm not going to lie, a great deal of that has come from my increasing dislike for Delano... so much so that anyone not him has gone up like 20 points in my book. He (Babo) has a lot going for him. He clearly has far more agency than most other people in the book-- he is not bound by ignorance like Delano, nor is he frail like Benito Cereno. He is organized, manipulative, and cunning; and while at least one of those isn't necessarily an admirable thing, it allows him to have some level of autonomy... so good for Babo.

One of my favorite interactions between any persons on the ship is of that between Delano, the spanish sailor, and one of the slaves. The sailor hands Delano a sort of gordian knot that he's apparently just assembled for someone to untie (a fine reason to do anything). Delano doesn't know what to make of it so he just sort of turns it over in his hands for a few minutes. A slave then reaches over and throws it over the boat. The slave is able to very quickly, and decisively, able to solve the puzzle that delano is overwhelmed by... once again proving that delano suuuuuuucccccks.