Oh, there's an elephant in the room

I enjoyed the amount of details and yes, the long sentences, in Benito Cereno. Throughout the story, I constantly was aware that something was not quite right. Through the narrative voice and through Captain Delano’s scope, details of actions by Babo, Benito, and the slaves were repeated to a point exceeding clarity for me. I think a little foreshadowing is great, but Melville really wants to make sure you know every detail… Most of the story is him going back and forth in his head about his suspicions.
As I glance back through my journal notes, here are some things I wrote about the evidence before Melville’s elephant attacked Delano’s men (read the title of this blog).. “I noted the razor comparison Captain Delano makes when he says that for a split second it looks like Babo is the executioner, and Cereno is the one on the block. Also, why did the sailor have an “inward chuckle” when Captain Delano asked him if he wanted to get to the harbor? The black men are looking at him, something’s fishy. Cereno can’t get off the ship, HELLO FISHY!!” While the detailed accounts of his suspicions at each moment were sometimes overbearing, I feel the intensity of the repetition added to the story for the most part. The reader knows something is not right, but is still left at the edge of his or her seat in anticipation of when everything will fall apart.