Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes the use of the narrative voice in "Benito Cerano" by Herman Melville. The paper explores the narrator and Captain Delano's narration in the work and explains that it allows the reader to experience the suspicion and suspense that makes the novella a compelling story by accentuating Delano's character flaws. The paper also describes how the insight to Delano's thoughts and feelings without dialogue allows the reader to perceive these thoughts and emotions as a narrator's truth.

From the Paper:

"The narrator and Captain Delano's narration, during Melville's free-indirect style of narrative as described by Abbott (Abbott 70-71), allows the reader to experience the suspicion and suspense that makes the novella a compelling story by accentuating Delano's character flaws. The insight to Delano's thoughts and feelings without dialogue allows the reader to perceive these thoughts and emotions as a narrator's truth. Though they aren't necessarily true, the audience receives the information with more plausibility than through the character's dialogue itself. This itself is a disguise though. The very fact that the narrator is no longer in control of the information flow to the reader exploits the reliability of the narrator's position. The suspense in Benito Cereno is fueled by the fact that the reader doesn't know who to trust in the story and the unwavering trust of Captain Delano."

Sample of Sources Used:

• McCall, Dan, ed. Benito Cereno. By Herman Melville. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002.
• Abbot, H P. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, n.d.

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