How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Captain Delano's surprise might have deepened into some uneasiness had he not been a person of a singularly undistrustful good-nature, not liable, except on extraordinary and repeated incentives, and hardly then, to indulge in personal alarms, any way involving the imputation of malign evil in man. (3.4)
This description of Delano comes early in "Benito Cereno", and it explains, in part, how he got so easily duped. He sees the world as a good, happy place, and doesn't notice evil. Which is all well and good…but really, the main "version of reality" that causes Delano to be obtuse is racism. It isn't that he sees all people as good; it's that he himself is racist and kind of evil, and so doesn't see black people as human.
Quote #5
"See, master—you shook so—here's Babo's first blood."
No sword drawn before James the First of England, no assassination in that timid King's presence, could have produced a more terrified aspect than was now presented by Don Benito." (3.266)
In Delano's version of reality, Babo is saying, here's the first time I've cut Cereno. In Cereno's, though, he's hearing Babo theaten to cut his throat.
Quote #6
Once again he smiled at the phantoms which had mocked him, and felt something like a tinge of remorse, that, by harboring them even for a moment, he should, by implication, have betrayed an atheist doubt of the ever-watchful Providence above. (3.355)
Delano is constantly thinking something is wrong, and then assuring himself that it isn't and upbraiding himself for ever considering the possibility of evil for a moment. He has faith in his version of reality—that faith being, not in a watchful Providence so much as in his own racist vision of black people.