Point Of View In Benito Cereno's Oroonoko

The point of view in a book gives the reader a deeper insight into the story and the reading. In “Benito Cereno,” the perspective of the narrator, Delano, limits the reader from really finding out about the true events taking place aboard the San Dominick. Delano does not know about the slave revolt and thinks the relationship between Benito Cereno and Babo is an example of true friendship when in reality Babo is holding Benito Cereno hostage. While the point of view in “Benito Cereno” is restricted, the narrator in “Oroonoko” is retelling the story and gives the reader a more rounded view of the story. The different type of narration in “Benito Cereno” and “Oroonoko” gives the reader different amounts of information which is either limited

The limited point of view confines the narrator to what a character perceives, their thoughts, and what they remember. The narrator is not all knowing like they would be if the story was from an omniscient point of view. We as the reader are trapped in Delano’s mind and are left to learn about the ship’s history in real time as he learns about it. “Benito Cereno’s” limited view obscures the narrator from being able to access other people’s thoughts and knowledge and results in a loss of information. The social relations aboard the San Dominick in “Benito Cereno” is what is being skipped over. There is clear violence aboard such as when “one of the black boys, enraged at a word dropped by one of his white companions, seized a knife, and, though called to forbear by one of the oakum-pickers, struck the lad over the head, inflicting a gash from which blood flowed (Benito Cereno, 49-50).” This act of aggression between a slave and a white man under normal circumstances would not be tolerated, but Benito Cereno says it was “merely sport (50).” Delano’s interpretation of this situation is that Benito Cereno is not a good captain and is “a commander who has little of command but the name (50).” By being confined to Delano’s thoughts, we as the reader accept that Benito Cereno is a bad commander and has no control over his ship. He thinks the actions aboard the San Dominick are normal is the context of the kind of ship

The narration is internally focalized on Delano and his subjective perception of the situation until the end of the book when everything is clarified in Benito Cereno’s declaration of the true events. The subjective view allows the events to be passed on to the reader through assumptions and interpretations. An omniscient narrator would have made it clear that there was a real issue aboard the boat. There would have been switching back and forth between the character’s thoughts and we would have been able to learn about the situation on board from different perspectives. When Babo jumps after Benito Cereno can be imagined from different points of view and it is clear that the story can told three different ways. “With infinite pity he withdrew his hold from Don Benito. Not captain Delano, but Don Benito, the black in leaping into the boat, had intended to stab (Benito Cereno, 88).” As the story is written, Delano is clueless until the end. From Benito Cereno’s point of view, the reader would share in his terror and frustration that it took Delano until now to realize something was wrong. From Babo’s point of view, we would have felt his anger towards the Spaniards and his desperation as he made his last attempt at freedom. Regardless, with either of these two characters being the center of the story, it would have been clear that there was some kind of