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1 Close Reading – Melville’s “Benito Cereno” ENGL 1205.1E: Introduction to Literature (Fall 2021) Dr. Adrian Knapp This assignment assesses your ability to close read a selected passage from Melville’s “Benito Cereno”. Choose one of the three passage below and conduct a close reading as discussed in class (see 5 levels of literary analysis and how to conduct a close reading). In your analysis, pay close attention to the relationship between context (where in the novella does this passage appear?), content (what is happening in this passage?) and form (how is language used in this passage to create a specific effect?). How do these elements interact in the passage you have selected? What do you make of that? Make sure you focus in detail on formal aspects of the passage, such as point of view, narrative form, figures of speech, imagery, symbolism, narrative tone (e.g. irony?) etc. to illuminate a central point you would like to make regarding the passage you have selected. In other words, you need to give your close reading an argumentative/interpretative focus (i.e. your own interpretation of what this passage means and why it is important). Do not use any material other than the passage you have selected and Melville’s novella itself. You may use weblinks suggested in class with definitions of literary devices and figures of speech. Before submitting your work, please review the University’s guidelines on Academic Integrity (see course syllabus or Academic Calendar). Your critical examination of the selected passage should be around 400 words long. Make sure to upload your close reading as a MS Word doc or PDF to the respective Assignments folder on Brightspace (under Assessments) by end of Friday 24 September 2021, 11:59pm (ADT). There are no extensions for this assignment. The Assignments folder will be locked when the deadline has passed. PASSAGE 1 ‘What, pray, was Atufal’s offence, Don Benito?’ asked Captain Delano; ‘if it was not something very serious, take a fool’s advice, and, in view of his general docility, as well as in some natural respect for his spirit, remit him his penalty.’ ‘No, no, master never will do that,’ here murmured the servant to himself, ‘proud Atufal must first ask master’s pardon. The slave there carries the padlock, but master here carries the key.’ His attention thus directed, Captain Delano now noticed for the first, that, suspended by a slender silken cord, from Don Benito’s neck, hung a key. At once, from the servant’s muttered syllables, divining the key’s purpose, he smiled and said: – ‘So, Don Benito – padlock and key – significant symbols, truly.’ Biting his lip, Don Benito faltered. (Broadview, pp. 67-68; Dix and Edwards, pp. 149-50) PASSAGE 2 ‘Captain Delano crossed over to him, and stood in silence surveying the knot; his mind, by a not uncongenial transition, passing from its own entanglements to those of the hemp. For intricacy, such a knot he had never seen in an American ship, nor indeed any other. The old 2 man looked like an Egyptian priest, making Gordian knots for the temple of Ammon. The knot seemed a combination of double-bowline-knot, treble-crown-knot, back-handed-well- knot, knot-in-and-out-knot, and jamming-knot. At last, puzzled to comprehend the meaning of such a knot, Captain Delano addressed the knotter: – ‘What are you knotting there, my man?’ ‘The knot,’ was the brief reply, without looking up. ‘So it seems; but what is it for?’ ‘For some one else to undo,’ muttered back the old man, plying his fingers harder than ever, the knot being now nearly completed. While Captain Delano stood watching him, suddenly the old man threw the knot towards him, saying in broken English – the first heard in the ship – something to this effect: ‘Undo it, cut it, quick.’ (Broadview, p. 82; Dix and Edwards, pp. 181-82) PASSAGE 3 ‘Yes, this is a strange craft; a strange history, too, and strange folks on board. But – nothing more. By way of keeping his mind out of mischief till the boat should arrive, he tried to occupy it with turning over and over, in a purely speculative sort of way, some lesser peculiarities of the captain and crew. Among others, four curious points recurred: First, the affair of the Spanish lad assailed with a knife by the slave boy; an act winked at by Don Benito. Second, the tyranny in Don Benito’s treatment of Atufal, the black; as if a child should lead a bull of the Nile by the ring in his nose. Third, the trampling of the sailor by the two negroes; a piece of insolence passed over without so much as a reprimand. Fourth, the cringing submission to their master, of all the ship’s underlings, mostly blacks; as if by the least inadvertence they feared to draw down his despotic displeasure. Coupling these points, they seemed somewhat contradictory. But what then, thought Captain Delano, glancing towards his now nearing boat – what then? Why, Don Benito is a very capricious commander. But he is not the first of the sort I have seen; though it’s true he rather exceeds any other. But as a nation – continued he in his reveries – these Spaniards are all an odd set; the very word Spaniard has a curious, conspirator, Guy-Fawkish twang to it. And yet, I dare say, Spaniards in the main are as good folks as any in Duxbury, Massachusetts. (Broadview, p. 85; Dix and Edwards, pp. 187-89)