I was really kinda confused when I first read this. I thought that the background to Aphra Behn was really helpful. She paved the way for women to speak their opinion, be authors, etc. She not only produced many types of works, but she was also a spy. How cool is that? Oroonoko is a very interesting piece of work. I'm not usually interested in reading stuff like this, I don't like reading about the slave trade whether it's fiction or non fiction. I think it is important to learn, but I think its just one of the horrible things America has participated in and I don't like it. However, I do think Oroonoko is well written. The way Behn portrays the story, it is like she is actually there. Like this actually happened to her...I guess that is why this story is a travel narrative.
The story opens up with the narrator explaining how well the colonists and the Native Americans get along. Well, maybe she feels that way, but history shows us otherwise. The colonists say they cannot enslave the Native Americans because they vastly outnumber the colonists, they must go somewhere else for slaves. Africa.
Lets skip over a lot. I love the description the narrator gives Oroonoko. She describes his shoulder length hair, beautiful white teeth and how white the whites of his eyes are, his body shape, tall, his beautiful ebony skin. How many slave owners do you know describe their slaves this way??? The beginning of Oroonoko's story was beautiful and then his wife, Imoinda, marries his grandfather. And then I remembered who was telling this story and that he is fated to be a slave, a horrible thing. I know we aren't supposed to finish this story until the end of this week, but not only did I read this story, I looked it up as well. Does anyone know what happens to him? He is sold into slavery by being tricked, whipped with pepper thrown into his wounds, ends up killing his beloved wife because he knows that they will never be free and returned to Africa, and he is also killed, but by being cut into pieces. This is freaking horrible. I hate it. And at the beginning on 2179 it is said that the narrator has no control over this situation and can only write about it? This is why I don't like stories like this. It states, "compassion for the royal slave and outrage at his fate were enlisted in the long battle against the slave trade." Oh, so now he gets compassion? Where was the compassion when he was stolen from his country? Or how about the thousands of others that were stolen from their countries? Tricked into slavery? Beaten? raped? Chopped and torn apart to death? Stuff like this makes me sick.
Okay, so I was extremely tired when I read this story last night and wrote my blog post. So I missed a lot, especially things that we went over in class. So lets go back to Oroonoko's description. I said I loved his description. I understand why Behn described Oroonoko to be European like to make him seem familiar to Europeans. That everyone is the same and that the slave trade is bad. However, I do not agree with it. The same goes for this whole story. I understand a little bit more why Behn wrote this story and I think she did a wonderful job, and it was when slavery was still fairly new. However, I still do not like it.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I though she is pretty cool, too. Reading her work, all I could think about was the story by Virginia Wolfe, Shakespeare’s Sister. Aphra Behn is only a century or so short of being his sister, very neat. In agreement also, I do not like reading about it either. It is never easy reading about one of the most horrendous things in history, but knowledge is power.
ReplyDeleteThe description of Oroonoko is interesting; I did not expect it. I feel like there is a reason that she describes him this way other than giving him honorable mention on his aesthetics. Mainly, I would have to agree with what we talked about in class: her describing him this way to humanize him to her audience in that time period. Not only is that tactful, but very interesting concept in itself.
I’m scared to read the rest of your blog post because I do not want a spoiler!