On Herman Melville's Criticism Of American Racism In His Literary Writing

Generally acknowledged as one of the towering writers of the nineteenth century in the United States, Herman Melville is best known for his thrilling sea stories. A white as he is, he feels deeply concerned with the dark-skinned men and the American institution of slavery. Such complex has a close relationship with his growing experiences, especially his voyages across the Pacific Ocean and his interactions with the indigenous residents that deepen his understanding of humanity and the alleged Western civilization. Based on the previous studies of his works such as Mardi, Moby-Dick, and Benito Cereno, the thesis intends to explore Melville's attitudes towards black and white people and his criticism of American racism with much emphasis given to the text analysis.The thesis mainly falls into five parts with the first and last sections as introduction and conclusion. The introductory part is about a brief summary of Melville's growing experiences and writing career. And the second chapter, apart from the research purpose, goes on to discuss Melville revival in the early twentieth century from the perspective of Reception Theory and deals with the current criticism of the three said works at home and abroad, the research situation of Benito Cereno in particular.The third part attempts to discuss the writer's attack on white superiority and Americans' cultural prejudice against Europeans from the perspective of the white narrators. For most Westerners, black symbolizes evil and inferiority while white represents good and superiority, but this does not hold water for Melville. In Mardi, he not only mocks at Taji's racial discrimination, but also protests against his expansionist consciousness. Unfortunately, the analyzed novel can only be appreciated as an immature satire on racial supremacy, for Melville at that time remains somewhat reserved and by no means makes a complete break with colonialism. But the situation improves when he works on Moby-Dick, in which Ishmael soon finds a bosom friend in Queequeg and treats him as his peer when he gets to know the simple honesty and awful nobility of the savage. So the great story can be appreciated as Melville's appeal for equality and fraternity between ethnic groups, an indirect protest against racism. Yet the most powerful work that sees the writer's maturity is Benito Cereno. Melville here plays one trick after another upon Captain Delano, a flat character blind to his white superiority and cultural prejudice. He also satirizes the halfway submission of Captain Cereno, a man struggling between conflicting ideologies. A savage attack on the post-colonial ideology, Benito Cereno is intended as an antislavery tract.The following section aims to study Melville's understanding of the blacks by examining the typical black characters he creates. A fledging writer at the very beginning, Melville readily accepts the established black stereotypes, but the situation gradually changes as he grows more thoughtful. Of all his fictions, Mardi witnesses his subtle change in attitudes towards those colored men, and he begins to perceive some islanders as multifaceted characters instead of being simply tractable or purely vicious. His masterpiece Moby-Dick just sees his increasingly original portrayal. He successfully creates such unforgettable figures as Queequeg, Daggoo, and little Pip, the first two standing noble and unspoiled in the hypocritical Christendom while the last one being sensitive and quite passionate for life. And the most original and striking character is of course the ringleader Babo in Benito Cereno. A brave man with great intelligence, Babo is competent in splendid scheme and performance. Humble and docile as he appears, he is able to do malign evil. By spotlighting his wickedness and intelligence, Melville makes him fully man and individual.Finally, it comes to a conclusion that, in his writing from Mardi to Moby-Dick and Benito Cereno, Melville's racial thought grows in maturity. He develops his own distinctive knowledge of American racism and essentially undergoes a passage from innocence to experience, in which lies the eternal charisma of his literary thought.