the mystery of Babo

While Benito Cereno is an all around intriguing novel, there is one character in particular that stands out as puzzling to me, and that character is Babo. Babo is a strange mixture of assistant and worshipper that I cannot quite figure out. Why is he so loyal? What is he hiding? Why is he constantly making excuses for his master (and, on that note, why does he insist on calling him "master" every five seconds)??

I know in class we made a comparison to Gollum, but I have honestly never read the Lord of the Rings books or seen the movies, so I'm not sure if I agree or disagree with that. What I do think of when I think of Babo is the elves from Harry Potter. I am going to go ahead and quote Harry Potter here, but don't laugh because I think it honestly makes sense! Talking about the elf Kreacher, Dumbledore says, "His existence has been as miserable as your friend Dobby's. He was forced to do Sirius's bidding, because Sirius was the last of the family to which he was enslaved, but he felt no true loyalty to him." I have not yet finished reading Benito Cereno, so I have no idea if Babo really does feel loyalty or not, but I do have a strong feeling that there is something else going on in that relationship. At one point, Babo positions himself to face his master solely because "he could the more readily anticipate his slightest want (p 89)." It is clear that Babo's every move, every sentence, and likely every thought revolves around Benito Cereno. I personally feel that both Babo and Benito Cereno are in on some sinister secret that perhaps the rest of the crew is unaware of...

I probably should have waited until after I finished reading the novel to write this post, but I thought it would be interesting to write down my speculations regarding Babo. While he is not a huge character, he is striking in his strange actions and presence. It will be interesting to see what his larger role in the novel is!