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Fatal underestimation—Sue's Atar-Gull and Melville's "Benito Cereno" - Articles - Herman Melville's 'Benito Cereno' - Eugene Sue's 'Atar-Gull'
Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1998 by John D. Cloy
Au-dehors je serai loue, montre, fete, comme le modele des serviteurs, et je te soignerai, et je soutiendrai ta vie, car elle m'est precieuse, ta vie ... plus que la mienne, vois-tu; il faut que tu vives longtemps pour moi, pour ma vengeance ... oh! Bien longtemps ... l'eternite, si je pouvais ... Et si un etranger entrait ici ... ce serait pour te dire mes louanges, te vanter mon devouement a moi, qui ai tue ... tue ta famille ... qui t'ai rendu muet et miserable ... car c'est moi ... c'est moi, entends-tu, Tom Wil ... c'est moi seule qui ai tout fait ... moi seul.... (5) (Atar-Gull 261)
The obtuseness of the white characters in these works borders on the unbelievable. In the American captain's case, his density probably saves him. (6) Only after Cereno jumps into his boat as the visitors leave the San Dominick does Delano start to grasp the true nature of the drama around him. He still suspects the Spanish captain of perfidy at this point (grabbing him to restrain possible violence), and, until Babo leaps after his victim, attempting to poignard him, Delano is still confused. In Sue's novel, it seems unlikely that Wil and his family would not have missed Atar-Gull's overnight absences to confer with the Maroons in the mountains of Jamaica, since he was an omnipresent body-servant. Also, when one misfortune after another strikes the planter's family, the slave is never far off, in attendance at the house when Wil's daughter Jenny has her fatal encounter with the snake. Wil himself suspects nothing until Atar-Gull reveals himself in Paris as his tormentor. Neither do the neighbors in the run-down building where the two reside entertain doubts of the black's fidelity. The vastly higher intelligence and cunning of these black characters make a powerful and radical statement about Sue and Melville's beliefs in the supposed superiority of the white race.
The invidious depth of the blacks' revenge on their white owners is an accurate measure of their hatred. Both authors stress the slaves' pagan religion and foreign outlandish practices, The loosely interpreted European Christianity that allowed for the enslavement of fellow beings is contrasted with the more primal beliefs of the Africans. For the blacks, vengeance is an accepted part of their culture. The more barbarous the atrocities (including cannibalism) committed against enemies, the more successful the balancing of cosmic accounts. Thus Babo and his compatriots brutally slay the Spaniards aboard the San Dominick--by drowning, bludgeoning, and hacking them to death. In a particularly brutal twist, the slaves kill Don Alexandro Aranda, their former master, and install his skeleton (implying cannibalism) as figurehead on the ship, accompanied by the derisive motto "seguid vuestro jefe" (follow your leader). Atar-Gull is equally ruthless with Wil and his family, sparing no member of the Wil household. Sue and Melville subtly point out the slight distance between the ownership and degradation of slavery perpetrated by the whites to the wanton butchery of their enemies by the blacks. There seem to be no authentic Christians among the characters of either narrative, despite the claims of some of the whites themselves. (7) After Delano has rescued Cereno from the mutineers and they are safely ashore, the Spaniard tells the American captain that he considers their passage through the adventure unscathed as a case of divine intervention:
