Post 1 Oroonoko

Right of the bat, the quote that resonated with me in the book the most is “And these People represented to me an absolute Idea of the first State of Innocence, before Man knew how to sin: And ’tis most evident and plain, that simple Nature is the most harmless, inoffensive and virtuous Mistress. ’Tis she alone, if she were permitted, that better instructs the World, than all the Inventions of Man: Religion would here but destroy that Tranquillity they possess by Ignorance;” I feel like this quote right smack in the beginning of the book resonated with me for many reasons the main one being that this would spark a conversation in two of my philosophy classes since it can be argued that religion alters and affect one’s perspective of happiness and she is saying that their naiveness to religion is what preserves their happiness. This quote also foreshadows the story in so many different ways on how everything plays out. I feel like this book depicted African Americans in a stereotypical way (besides Oroonoko) which makes me curious to think again on where racism is rooted in how far back can it go and what impact Euro-centic ideology has on it(I know this is a little bit of a stretch but this is what I thought while reading page 18 of the pdf) It shows that she is simply a product of her time since at the time this is how they addressed African American people(WHICH IS WRONG but this is the literature she is known for and the time it was in so)

The first mention of the Queen  took me as well in the way she is addressed, especially how Behn says she is too great for anyone but someone of her own nation to adore. It took me off to some degree, as she could have anyone and it keeps me on my toes to see who she ends up with. I think the one thing I love about the book is the bashing of christianity and how it teaches men to sin and how Oroonoko and Imanda are hornorful and have pure intentions in their morals because they lack religion.

I don’t like the king personally between trying to keep Imoinda for himself, then selling her into slavery because she got caught trying to keep in contact with him and sleeping with oroonoko. I feel like this was significant to how the rest of the story went because if he had not done this, maybe Oroonoko would’ve ended up happy with Imanda and their unborn child. It is a tragedy how the book ends between the revolt to free the salves lead by him(in main doing to save his love Imanda) and how she would rather not live if they got caught because of what slavery is like so not only does he kill his lover and wife, he gets killed by some european guy (can’t remember his name byran?)  And he ends up dying too. It feels like a Shakespearean tragedy like Othello and it sucks how the characters can’t just end up happy.

One critique I have for the novel is that Oroonoko is one of the smartest men described in the book, and I understand back then (During Shakespeare time) if a person could prove they spoke Spanish in jail, they basically had a free pass. Wouldn’t there be any sort of way back then to have known that he could’ve been used for something more or greater than everything he was used for, or as a free pass for someone who has been enslaved( this could have saved Imandaf. I also want to complement the way the novel is written, it keeps your attention and allows you to dived into that world, even tho it was 200+ years ago.