Criticisms of Delano fair?
In class a lot of people criticized Delano for being so blind to events that were taking place before him. And in class I too agreed that he did seem a bit over trusting and naive of the whole situation. However when thinking about it further I realized that none of us could have predicted the plot twist that Cereno was being held captive by Babo and other slaves, so is it really fair to judge Delano so harshly, saying that he is stupid for not figuring it out? In addition to that even though Delano was quite paranoid and suspected that something was wrong, perhaps it was for the best that he didn’t outright do anything about it right away. Perhaps if he did something sooner it would have backfired, ending much worse than it did. Or if by chance Delano’s suspicions about what was going on were not correct that too could have made things quite uncomfortable for everyone. So while it is easy to bash Delano in hind sight, perhaps it is not the most fair thing to do.
I agree, I think that if Delano had acted differently – or just sooner – things could have gone very differently for everyone on board. I think that it was actually a stroke of luck that he did not fully piece what was going on until when he did. And although I think he should have realized sooner, it would have been unwise of him to act without fully knowing exactly what was going on. He almost does this anyways, when he first assumes that Benito was a traitor and grabs him. If anything, I think this is something Delano should have known better than, but perhaps this is just another attribute to his racism, as he is blind to the totally obvious until the last possible second. This is what I think Delano actually needs to be criticized most for, and is the root of his lack of perception as to the true situation.
I do agree we might have been quick to judge Delano, but what I think we tried to hit the hardest in class was his blindness in not seeing the intent of babo. This was the key factor and even at the end of the story, Delano still could not believe that babo was behind everything, even though it was obvious to any onlooker not named Delano. I think that part was the problem, where we judged him on his trusting of babo, and it sounded as if we thought he was way too naive, but on the contrary. As you state he definitely took precautions and didn’t poke his nose too far as to get himself in trouble.
I agree that it is not fair to criticize Delano for not realizing the truth of the San Dominick unless we as readers are able to criticize ourselves as well. The way that Melville frames this story puts the readers and Captain Delano on the same playing field. The story is essentially told from his point of view and as he sees and discovers new curiosities, so do we. As clues were constantly being thrust in the face of Delano, they were being thrust in our own as well. If we as readers were unable to solve this mystery, how could we have expected Delano to? In hindsight, it is easy to blame Delano for his poor and foolish judgement, but then we must be able to blame ourselves as well. Not only does Melville force us to consider Delano’s discernment and fault in the matter, but he also forces us to question our own.