Oroonoko

Oroonoko Aphra Behn 

The story of Oroonoko erupts with vivid imagery of the foreign colony of Surinam and immediately takes the reader to another world. The imagery gives the reader a real perspective on what the early colonial Caribbean was like, tie that in with a dramatic love story and you have the formula for a perfect story on early Caribbean trials and tribulations. The story follows African Prince Oroonoko who is a black hero for white men. Behn writes this story from an extremely euro-centric perspective to peak the interest of people in England and the surrounding areas."For the future therefore I must call Oroonoko Cæsar; since by that Name only he was known in our Western World", Oroonoko is given the name Caesar due to his personal resemblance of European royalty. Oroonoko is given the title of "Caesar" due to his blaring similarities to white leaders of great beauty. I believe Behn thought that England wasn't ready for a story of an African hero during the time of systematic racism that the 1600s was. Imoinda is described in a similar fashion to Oroonoko she is essentially a white African love interest for him and just another eurocentric theme in the story. 

    "Sworn in the Name of a great God; which if he should violate, he must expect eternal Torments in the World to come" Orooonoko stops trusting men of God after being betrayed by the captain of the slave ship. This puts religion in a negative light and seems to a commentary on how people have done evil things in the name of their god. During the colonial early the new world was plagued by men who thought they had a divine right to rape and pillage their way through the Americas. I think the natives and slaves became very cognizant of the atrocities that people committed in the name of god and began to distrust people of faith on this basis. Behn knows this and paints a rather dark image of Christianity especially for a work so heavily targeted at European markets. 

    "This Prince, such as I have describ’d him, whose Soul and Body were so admirably adorned". Oroonoko is held as an almost ephemeral figure and certainly above his peers. The concept of slavery is built on great inequality in a similar capacity that royalty and power are built on. Oroonoko should theoretically condemn slavery despite selling people into slavery himself, and therefore should also see the flaw in him being held as a prince and a man above other slaves. Oroonoko is arrogant and self-centered in that he would rather be held above other slaves than contribute in their collective freedom. In a strange way Oroonoko has a similar mindset to slave owners themselves and does not appear to be interested in ending slavery as an institution. Oroonoko was an unfortunate victim of slavery but does not necessarily appear to hate it as a practice. This is almost comparable to women against women's suffrage or a soldier against war bonds. Oroonoko's blaring flaws come out in this way in that he is arrogant and holier than thou and does believe that inequality should exist. Oroonoko lived and died on his own terms while at the same time always being subject to someone else. 

    

Comments

  1. Sara PelletierAugust 31, 2020 at 12:40 PM

    I also noticed the quick tie-in of a romance in the beginning of the story. I think this was a very European construction of how stories were told, introducing that interpersonal problem to the characters very quickly. It also seems that Behn is trying to lighten your mood before the story turns to tragedy. It is a definite element of duality, with the lighthearted comedy/romance leading to a true tragedy. It's also interesting that the comedy happens mostly in Africa, while the tragedy begins after Oroonoko leaves to go to battle (and is subsequently kidnapped). I think this points to your point about how the struggle between the colonists and the native people comes through. The author seems to be trying to represent the people as happy and more free in Africa, while facing harsh circumstances and punishments when forced to come with the colonists.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Disturbances of the Garden by Jamaica Kincaid

 The Disturbances of the Garden  "But where is the garden and where am I in it?"(P6), this line metaphorically lays out a question that everyone has, what is life and where do I fit into everything? I think the garden can be viewed as an extended metaphor for life itself and the struggles that people face sometimes to figure out how they fit into the world around them. Especially in the Caribbean sometimes being spilt between two cultures or an islands with stark economic and racial contrasts people were forced to ask themselves where exactly they were supposed to be in this world.  "On August 3, 1492—the day that Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain, later having a fatal encounter with the indigenous people he met in the “West Indies”—the world of the garden changed."(P8), this line shows where all this change and cultural confusion began. At the end of the day when we ask ourselves who caused the Caribbean to be the way it is today, the answer is all of the Eu...
Read more

Post Colonial Theory

 An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory Peter Childs and R.J. Patrick Williams      The world still lives largely in the wake of the colonial period that existed over all continents for 100s of years. "Beginning in earnest in the 1950s and reaching it's highest point in the 1960s". (1) Signs of the colonial era ending emerge in the 1950s, governments begin to move out of holding proxy states and imperialist theory begins to exit the first world. It is difficult to say that we are out of the post-colonial era even today and we see the after-effects of it in many nations today. The term post-colonial by itself takes an extended amount of explaining because large implications arise from it. You could even lobby that we have yet to exit the colonial era, as nations like China continue to annex land and entire countries.     "A much more plausible explanation is the search for low-cost labor forces"(5) This line underlines an ever-present problem that may not h...
Read more

Some People Are Meant to Live Alone Frank Collymore

  Some People Are Meant to Live Alone Frank Collymore      Frank Collymore's story follows an odd man in isolation named Uncle Arthur. Uncle Arthur himself may not be that odd of a man but it's the isolation and mystery that follows him that makes people fear him. This goes along with the notion that people fear the unknown and things that they don't understand. Along with that living in social isolation is considered to be out of the norm. Naturally, there are introverts and extroverts in this world but extreme recluses are often regarded as strange or even crazy. Some people prefer being alone and are content in that but humans being the social beings that we are tend to have a hard time understanding this concept. Some people can handle loneliness better than others and indeed as the text implies I do believe some people are meant to be alone. But these people that seem so along to us on the outside may truly be less lonely than the masses. While it can seem like ...
Read more