EngLit

Adelinne · Diver Data inscrierii: 11/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 62

Izabella Strimb:

It is an early modern literature, where we stumble upon a few words with different meanings, such as “tiger”, meaning a small cat, not a tiger. Behn uses these meanings , which are particular to her own era.
She refers to 3 types of people who live in Surinam. The narrator is European. She uses the pronoun “we” / “us” in order to divert any confusion between Europeans and the other groups. For the other group , the pronoun “they” / “them” is regularly enforced.
I think that Behn’s characterization of the great Oroonoko was a must, in order to convince her audience (probably Europeans), that these characters were worth caring about, put some effort into them. It was necessary for her to win the public readers over, and she succeeded by creating European like characters (European looks, thinking, behavior, characteristics, beauty)
Oroonoko’s beauty is based on European looks, beauty, as well as Imoinda’s. Oronooko was extremely different from his tribe, which gives him an advantage, and some extra curiosity. Behn is using him directly as a tool, to win over the readers. At least this is what I think, from my personal experience, because his description also challenged me, motivated me to read on. I suppose, this was a curiosity at that time, which made Behn popular.

alexa_iliescu · Trimis: 15/01/2012 15:31 Titlul subiectului:

From the beginning to the end of the novel, the narrator is sympathetic to Oroonoko. But I feel that the narrator exagerates a bit. Was Oroonoko as great as she described? Was he really a hero? What hero falls into melancholy exactly when he should be lucid and take decisions? Did the spartans ever fall into melancholy when they had to fight?
In my opinion, Oroonoko was not a hero. He acted only in his own interest. After he was fooled and taken as a slave to Surinam, he wanted to organise a rebellion against the whites. But did he have the right to do that, if he also sold war prisoners to the whites? He found as excuse the fact that the prisoners sold by him were honorably caught, because they fought in wars; he and the others who were with him were trapped - the latter being a shameful way.
He was a prince, fought in wars, was a strategist. How could he trust in those people who were dealing with slave tradery? My answer is that Oroonoko was too arrogant. He thought that everyone obeyed him. But he didn't deal with people from Coramantien anymore. He was blinded by arrogance, so he wasn't able to see that the expedition on that ship was a trap. Another mistake he made was when he and the other slaves managed to escape and burned the bushes in their way. Generally, when somebody wants to escape from somewhere, tries to let as few traces as he can. In Oroonoko's case, happened exactly the opposite. Why? Again, my answer is because of arrogance, because he started the rebellion with a single purpose: to get free, because his wife Imoinda was pregnant and he didn't want his child to born a slave. He didn't care for the rest and he didn't think of the best way to escape.
Another act of arrogance was killing his wife. He denied her the possibility to defend herself and to fight for her child. Imoinda was a brave woman. Until Oroonoko came to Surinam, she managed to survive and nobody touched her.

The part which describes Oroonoko's death is really grotesque. I question Aphra Behn's reliability concerning this part, because she said she didn't take part at that awful scene; all that she knows is from her mother and her sister, who were witnesses. This telling and retelling of a story is like in "Chinese whispers" - where one says something to someone, and that someone passes the message to someone else, and so on, and the last person who receives the message will know all but the truth.

So, was Oroonoko so great as Aphra Behn described? I invite my colleagues to comment on this.

ana.bilan · Dunker Data inscrierii: 11/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 21

In respons to Alexandra’s post
I have to confess that when I read the book I never put myself the question if Oroonoko is or not so great as described by Aphra Behn.
First of all we have to take into consideration the author’s method of wirting. As we have noticed Aphra Behn, like Daniel Defoe tries to trick us by saying that her writtings is no fiction as she says “I was myself an eye-witness to a great part of what you will find here set down, and what I could not be witness of I recived from the mouth of the chief actor in this history” as to make us believe her story. She make the portret of a negru man, but what is interesting is the fact that she has picked just one black man that is described like these: “pretty tall” “his face not of that brown rusty black, which most of the nations are, but of perfect ebony, or polished jet… mouth the finest shaped that could be seen…there could not be in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome” well as we see the portret of these man does no really seem to be the portret of a black man, but he looks more like europeans or romans, except the skin colour. Moreover the writer seems to have prefrences among black people who in her eyes are not all the same “not of that brown rusty black, which most of the nations are”. In this book she creates like a perfect man so as the readers to enjoy reading the story and like as much as posible the black male hero.
Also we find out that Oroonoko’s name is noble “Mr. Trefry gave Oroonoko that of Cesear; which name will live in that country as long as that (scarce more) glorious one of the great Roman” and Aphra Behn picked up a character that was morelikely absolut not any slave.
I believe that it doesen’t matter if Oroonoko was as great as described by Aphra Behn through his action, he had features of a hero, he had a noble man, he is different among the other slaves. The important is the fact that Oroonoko was one of the first characters in literature that was black and that somebody dared to present him like a hero.

Simona Timis · Plunger Data inscrierii: 27/Mai/2011 Mesaje: 39

I agree with my colleague Alexandra, because that he did is immoral.
Oroonoko was described as very beautiful and different from other blacks in the round and that he had European features: European face, high...
Oroonoko and Imoinda loved each other very very much and their love persisted even after separation. Their love never die and eventually they meet as slaves in Surinam and married, follow to have a baby but it no longer born because Oronooko kills his wife, not to catch her.

The narrator was witness at all the happenings, but at the scene of Oroonoko's death less.
The image of his death was horrible, terrible, scary, and grotesque in the same time.

larisapop · Trimis: 23/01/2012 22:32 Titlul subiectului:

When I started reading this story I found it very beautiful the way the narrator described the place and the people. It seemed like a place where bad things can't happen and everyone knows which their place is. We find about the nature that still stands as pure as it was in the garden of Eden, about the animals and the human power to stand in front of them. People are presented as being very inocent and the narrator says that even if women wear as little clothing as men, they don't have indecent behavior. Up to this point we may say that the narrator would like to live in this world. But after she continues to describe Oroonoko who has more European features than black people features, we see that actually she considers herself superior to the people she praysed just a few lines above. She doesn't consider them inteligent and what she wrote about them is like a way out in case someone in that group will ever get to see the description.
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You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you've got something to say.

larisapop · Trimis: 23/01/2012 22:49 Titlul subiectului:

Almost every time I read something I take sides. There is always a character that is in my image the best and the inocent one in all the story. But in the case of this story, I can't say the same thing. At first I admired Oroonoko, but I guess I did that only as a result of what the narrator described, before knowing the way he behaves in a real situation. What really made me stop taking Oroonoko's part was the major choice he took: killing Imoinda. Besides, the attitude he had in front of slavery made be believe that he wasn't more than the Europeans that took him as a slave. Even when he saw that it hard to be taken slave, he never repented for taking slaves himself. He was too concentrated on himself. He never got to see and understand the sufferings of those around them. Maybe Imoinda wanted to live, but he never asked. He just told her what to do, and I guess, because he wanted to make a good to himself. Oroonoko is not the image I have in mind of a hero.
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You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you've got something to say.

alexa_iliescu · Trimis: 23/01/2012 23:05 Titlul subiectului:

I agree that Oroonoko was different among the others. But how can someone claim to describe a "great man" a person who made such big mistakes? Maybe because the narrator is a woman. There is a thing that caught my sight. She focuses on Oroonoko's beauty, on his Roman features. A black man having European features is the main character of the novel. I ask myself why. Let's remember that blacks were considered to be stupid, devlish, cannibals, savages, close to animals. And here comes the black hero, but not any black, but a European-like one. This makes me believe that even the narrator was touched by that belief, or was forced by circumstances.

Titiana Tomoiaga · Dunker Data inscrierii: 12/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 17

I am not sure that the narrator is subjective because of the affection, or because of the attraction she might feel for Oroonoko, but because she is trying to present the reader something he is not used to,she is trying to to put him in a better light so the reader would not judge him as a stranger but as a person who has the same features as of a honourable educated european, this way the reader would be sympathetic to the atrocities he, and his people had suffered.

larisapop · Trimis: 24/01/2012 19:00 Titlul subiectului:

I would like to say just a few words about the way women were presented in both "Oroonoko" and "Things Fall Apart. In the first book we see that Oroonoko is very influenced by Imoinda and he loves her, and it was not just an ilusion, but a really deep feeling and connection. When Imoinda died, Oroonoko died on the inside. This proves the importance that men gave on their relation with the woman they love. In the second book, we find more about women and there aren't so many restrictions regarding their life, but women don't have an influence on men, maybe because love was kept silent with the intention of men showing their masculinity. It was like a weakness for men to show they are attatched too much to women. Probably this difference between these books regarding the way women are treated is colsely related to the gender of the autors. If I were a writer I would certainly ilustrate in some way in my book the importance women have in men's life. And I think this is what Aphra Behn did in a way.
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You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you've got something to say.

Ticala Ioana · Diver Data inscrierii: 11/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 56

Oroonoko is a novel about the grandson of an African king who name is Oroonoko who loves very much Imoinda.
Oroonoko is the African prince who is captured and enslaved by a British slave trader and brought to Surinam,where in time he leads a slave revolt and after this revolt he dies.
Imoinda is a beautiful girl that Oroonoko loved so much,she is sold into slavery after Oroonoko attempts to rescue her from his grandfather.
Here are some questions about this novel:
Why do you think that Oroonoko is an abolitionist tract?
Why do you think that Behn can favor or disfavor colonialism?

Ticala Ioana · Diver Data inscrierii: 11/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 56

I want to add some themes of this story:
The first will be anti-colonialism-Oroonoko is an anti-colonial text.
Behn who is the writer of this novel felt disheartened that her countrymen could behead the King Charles I.
Such writers had a fear that the British possessed a predisposition for violence and greed.
The British slave were friends with Oroonoko but later betrays him and after that then sells him to Trefry.
The female narrative voice,this voice invites readers into the plot with a familiar tone that bears a resemblance to a conversation.
The narrator's voice is suggestive because she uses the epistolary form,writing a letter.
Also she provides her readers a description of the local flora and fauna and their customs.
The narrator may be considered an intrusive narrator someone who can interrupt the narrative.

Adelinne · Diver Data inscrierii: 11/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 62

From the beginning of this text we notice the narrator’s attempt in making us believe that this royal slave actually existed and he even met him

Unguras Flavia · Dunker Data inscrierii: 13/Noi/2009 Mesaje: 20

Oroonoko was a strong and courageous man and he proves this by accepting his fate as Okonkwo from “Things Fall Apart” eventually did. The only thing that distinguish both of them is that Oroonoko didn’t have enough power to take his own life (unlike Okonkwo, who kills himself before being killed by the missionaries). But he hold the mental and physical strength to face his destiny by enduring all the pain caused by Byam’s people when cutting off his ears and his nose. He shows careless continuing to smoke the pipe as if nothing had touched him. He tried to keep his spirit calm till his last breath. Only after his both arms had been cut off and his head sunk in blood, his pipe dropped.

romanadriana · Trimis: 25/02/2012 16:10 Titlul subiectului:

When I read this book I expected to read about how slavery really was,what kind of works they were doing,about their economic organisation.Instead I discovered by reading it the position of an average education witter and about the filantropy to slave life. A.Behn was sympatetic to the negru people,being at the same time a kind of spy for the British Gouvernment at that time. Considering this,we find out that the book has one individual hero: Oroonoko. She tried to ephasize not that typical black,she presented us the first portrait of a blak,made with precision.In this portrait A.Behn use beauty in terms of English people.Under different conditions this text has psichologically consistency,the plot is complex convincing without fiction,with frontal characterisation of places,but the end is made as a greek tragedy.[/b]
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