The Subversive Narrative Strategy in “Benito Cereno” Kim, Sungchul(Seokang College) “Benito Cereno” is the most controversial work of Melville's short stories. First of all, this work's structure makes readers feel uneasiness. The plot receives a conventional unraveling, but the essential mystery is left unexplained. It is because this story has a subversive deep structure. This story has three parts: 1) Delano's experience with his limited vision and thought of St. Dominick, 2) Benito's deposition, and 3) The enigmatic deaths of Benito and Babo. These three parts are subverted by the following parts. Melville exposes the superficiality of Delano's recognition by showing Benito's deposition. And then, the possibility of untruth of the deposition is strongly suggested by Benito's silence and death with Babo's “voiceless end.” But in appearance he develops this story only on the ground of the white by excluding the black's stand. The subversive structure of this story is fortified by narrative technics--the uses of irony, double negation, and shadow imagery. Above all this shadow imagery is pervaded everywhere in the story from the beginning to the end. The shadow of Delano's experience seems to be cleared by Benito's deposition. But in the last part the deeper shadow comes by the strong suggestion of the Babo's stand. Through the subversive narrative strategy Melville strongly reveals the black's stand and tells his opinion on the slavery in America. He does not handle the racial problem, but intends to tell the human relationship under the slavery is essentially fatal to both. Showing the essence of human relationship under the slavery Melville warns Americans of their superficial recognition of the slavery. The subversive strategy also reflects Melville's own situation as a writer at that time. And nowadays this story has a significance in that it makes us look around our circumstances to see if we are casting the shadows on others.