Oroonoko was a General of Coramantien and a Prince. He loyal to his country, compassionate
towards Imoinda and very strong willed.
His character traits are important to this story because they connect
with the reader emotions, as he is an all around great person who is madly in
love with a woman and is put down because of his race.
There are two main themes pertaining
to the story Oroonoko. The first theme
is love, Oroonoko was made General and after coming home from war, he meets and
falls in love with Imoinda. Oroonoko is
shocked by her beauty and marries Imoinda. This marriage however is short lived;
the King of Coramantien abuses his power and steals Imoinda from Oroonoko.
Oroonoko is heartbroken and longed for Imoinda.
The story revolves around Oroonoko and his love for Imoinda. He is sent off to England as a slave because
he gets caught spending the night with Imoinda after she remarried to the
King. Then when they are off the ship,
they reconnect later, at this time however, Oroonoko is now named Caesar and is
a slave. Love was the driving force of this entire story and without this
theme; the story would be completely different and not have progressed. The second theme of the story is
Slavery. Oroonoko is a non-white person
and is described as having an “Ebony or polished Jett” face, and tall and
strong. These are the ideal
characteristics a slave owner would be looking for in a slave. When Oroonoko is picked with seventeen other
slaves, it was said that “not one of quality with him”(page 222), meaning he
was a more desired as a slave because of his strong build than the other slaves
that were purchased in his lot.
This story
was a great reflection of culture at the time it was written in the 1600s.
During this time the slave industry was at its peak with an estimated 6-7 million
slaves brought into the New World by the 18th century. What people do not realize, is the slaves all
had their own lives they were deprived of back home. Oroonoko was sent off to England to be
punished for what he had done and his life was changed forever due to his
actions. This story was great because it
revolved around the slave and his life before slavery. The love story with
Imoinda gave us the background information that led to why Oroonoko was a slave.
-Patrick
Hi Patrick, thank you for your hard work. And I agree with you that the character traits are very important. I also agree that the two most important themes in this story are love and slavery because as you said none of this would have happened if it wasnt for the power of love. I really enjoyed your detailed Analyze!
ReplyDeleteHi Patrick, I enjoyed reading your analysis. I like how detailed your writing is. I also, agree with your two themes for the story being love and slavery but I would also see betrayal being a theme because of how the king sent Oroonoko to England as a slave and married the love of his life. I like how you said, "The love story with Imoinda gave us the background information that led to why Oroonoko was a slave" which make since. Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the analysis on the story. What I really enjoyed was how you went outside of the story to include historical facts relevant to what we were reading. The story does show, as you stated, the abuse of power by the king. Sadly in that era it was not seen as an abuse of power but more of that's how it was. In the era this story was written the kings had the power to marry whom ever they wanted and this story shows this. The story of Tartuffe goes along the same lines.
ReplyDeleteHi Patrick! I also interpreted the theme to be love, and I've never seen anyone else say that, so it excited me to see that you and I got similar ideas from it! I never thought of slavery to be a theme, per se, but I thought it was very interesting seeing it from your perspective and thinking about the tale itself with slavery as it's theme! I also liked your closing paragraph, and I think it strengthened the argument you were bringing to the table. Like you said, slavery was truly prevalent at that time, so it'd make sense for that to stand out in the story. What do you think is resembled by the royals falling from power and moving to a more human level as those people? I'd love to hear your analysis on that, and I think it's something you could explore. I also noticed that for your first theme, you chose a more psychological thing that's resembled through the writing, whereas for your second one, you chose something that we have more physical or visual associations with. What if you went with a more psychological approach for the second one as well (such as "injustice" or "inequality")? Overall, great post!! :)
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