My main reaction to the end of this book: There are so many loose ends!Of course, I guess I should have known that Melville wouldn't tie everything up in a bow. He tends to conceal his true feelings under layers and layers of conflicting views.
One example of this is the concept of the slaves' morals and possible heroism. Throughout the book he compares the slaves to religious figures. This is seen on page 53, when the emerging ship is compared to "a white-washed monastery after a thunder storm", "a ship-load of monks", having "dark moving figures were dimly descried, as of Black Friers pacing the cloisters". Is Melville saying that the passengers of the ship are holy and righteous? Or is he comparing them to dark, secretive Spanish Catholics?
Also not black and white was the use of litotes. For example the word doubtless is assumed to mean true, but it can also literally mean "without doubt" but not necessarily fact. The first use of the word is on page 59: "The best account would doubtless be given by the captain". Then it is used later when Delano tells Cereno that he should keep his crew under control, and Cereno in reply states, "Doubtless, Doubtless, Senor." This is very vague. Is Cereno being sarcastic or is he being depressingly impassive? I just wish the narrator would state his purpose.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I definitely understand this frustration. I experienced this battle with the narrator quite often throughout reading this book. More so the first time around when Capt. Delano kept going on and on with changing his mind and back and forth between trying to figure out babo's intentions. At first, these things are fully frustrating but I found myself thankful for them the second time around and once I reached the end. Once I saw how I can twist the way I read this book I became really appreciative of it. However, I won't deny that I still felt annoyed with the Capt. Delano wish-washy decision making. That never really resolved itself for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashlee and you Rebekah. At the end of the book I almost screamed because loose ends were still not tied up. But then I realized, those loose ends also provided a good amount (2 days worth actually) of debate and conversation. So at certain times, like when I was trying to find the specific meaning of the novel, I was frustrated with the layers upon layers of hidden meaning. But also, digging through them gets pretty intricate and enjoyable; it also helps to open your mind to other opinions or sides to the text that you wouldn't necessarily see if the meaning were blatant!
ReplyDelete