Comparison of Journal of the Plague Year and Oroonoko Essay

The killings made by the slaves are saddening, too. Mutilating the whites and leaving their bodies lying is inhumane. It is such a shocking story. This book was meant to teach the reader on the inhumanity of slavery. It also gives us the image of what happened during the past years when slavery was practised.

The analysis of the under discussion autobiography indicates a lot of major universal themes and human exploitation is one of them. A reader can see bleak picture of black slavery from the narration of Frederick Douglass who confronts brutal conduct of white masters throughout his childhood.

Olaudah Equiano had a very unique experience with the slave trade system. He began conveying his experience with how he was captured in his village by two men and a women, who kidnapped him and his sister. Their captors traveled with them for a few days before separating the siblings, and selling Equiano to his first master. He was treated fairly well, even when he ran away for a day and came back, he says his master “having slightly reprimanded me, ordered me to be taken care of, and not ill-treated.” (Equiano 27) Shortly after this engagement, Equiano’s master loses his wife and child and sends Equiano away to be sold again. He even gets to see his sister one last time before, again, they are separated.

(3) When first reading these narratives one would often assume, by what history tells us, that slave owners were cruel, hated men who often beat slaves severely if they committed even the slightest infraction. While this depiction does stand true for some slave owners, I was surprised to find that most of the former slaves interviewed in the “Slave Narratives” often held their masters in high regards, referring to them as kind and good. Former slave Harriett Gresham even goes as far to say that her master, Mr. Bellinger was “exceptionally kind”. Many slaves in the narratives described their masters as good to his slaves and never whipping them unless it was absolutely necessary. However, when the former slaves spoke of the “paterollers”, white men who roamed the roads in search of runaway slaves often beating them and returning them to their owners, they were described as being very cruel to slaves showing no sympathy to any slave found running away from a

White explores the master’s sexual exploitation of their female slaves, and proves this method of oppression to be the defining factor of what sets the female slaves apart from their male counterparts. Citing former slaves White writes, “Christopher Nichols, an escaped slave living in Canada, remembered how his master laid a woman on a bench, threw her clothes over her head, and whipped her. The whipping of a thirteen-year-old Georgia slave girl also had sexual overtones. The girl was put on all fours ‘sometimes her head down, and sometimes up’ and beaten until froth ran from her mouth (33).” The girl’s forced bodily position as well as her total helplessness to stop her master’s torture blatantly reveals the forced sexual trauma many African females endured.

Even works of literature that intend to have a good message can be interpreted and read the wrong way. The novella, Oroonoko written by Aphra Behn, is a great example of this. Oroonoko is the story of the Royal Slave. It is written in the perspective of a white colonial woman in the eighteenth century. I found the novella to have a lot of subtle racial undertones despite the fact that during that time it was seen as an anti-slavery novel.(1) There have been debates on whether this novella is pro-slavery or anti-slavery? While reading, I decided that it was neither, but more so a novella from a revolutionist point of view.

Although Aphra Behn’s infatuation with both the Amer-Indians of Suriname and Oroonoko may lead one to believe that she is somewhat different from the general European population, her descriptions of said peoples reveal her true emotions as those of the general European populace. As such, she projects the beliefs at the time, making her an indicator of widely held attitudes towards the justification of enslavement, or the lack thereof, and the perception of foreign peoples. Understanding Europeans’ attitudes during the 1600’s, when Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave was published, allows one to greater comprehend European slave owners’ religious motivations for enslavement. Behn tries to justify the Amer-Indians and Oroonoko’s freedom by describing

After battle, Oroonoko continues to abide by his code of virtues; he encounters the English sea Captain in Coramantien who invites him and his soldiers aboard his ship for a feast. Like the King, the sea Captain commits a dishonorable act and orders Oroonoko to be seized as a slave. A pattern of deceit occurs during the voyage to Surinam and it is obvious at this point, that Behn is emphasizing Oroonoko is becoming conscious of the dishonesty within white settler of the Christian religion. Still remaining noble even while seized, Oroonoko calls a hunger strike; as he would rather die than to become a slave. The sea Captain gives his promise that if he called off the hunger strike he would be freed once in Suriman. Taking his word, Oroonoko

"A Journal of the Plague Year", is a novel written in first person, told by the protagonist H.F. It was written by Daniel Defoe and speaks of the plague that occurred in London. This book was published about 57 years after the plague occurred. This novel is a story of his experiences during that plague that occurred in London in the year 1665. It is a fictional book but there is a lot of data, statistics, and even government documents throughout the pages.

This paper is a literary analysis of a select passage from page 151 of Daniel Defoe’s, Journal of the Plague Year. The focus of this passage is the narrator’s feelings about the plague’s relationship with human nature. In this passage H.F. (Defoe) asserts that another plague year would reconcile all destructive differences between people. Consequently, this passage does not correspond with the expected perspective of a plague survivor. The original intent of Journal of the Plague year was to be a realistic account of the plague from the prospective of H.F., a man living in London during the great visitation of 1665. The intention of the book does not match the content of the passage from page 151 because in this passage Daniel Defoe repeatedly

Aphra Behn’s novel, Oroonoko, gives a very different perspective on a slave narrative. Her characters embody various characteristics not usually given to those genders and races. Imoinda’s character represents both the modern feminist, as well as the subservient and mental characteristics of the typical eighteenth-century English woman. Oroonoko becomes an embodiment of what is normally a white man’s characteristic; he is the noble, princely, and sympathetic character that is not usually attributed to black men in general throughout most novels of slavery. The complete opposite character style is given to the slavers; the English are viewed as the barbaric, cunning, brutal characters that are usually portrayed in opposite and more generous

In Oroonoko, Aphra Behn sheds light on the horrors of slavery and expansionism that Britain

For in their country, Behn writes, "wives have a respect for their husbands equal to what any other people pay a deity, and when a man finds any occasion to quit his wife, if he love her, she dies by his hand, if not, he sells her or suffers some other to kill her" (p.68). Remarkably, opening the novella, Behn gives a description of Indians in Surinam, living in some kind of a "golden age", as Adam and Eve (p.7), innocent, unspoiled and decent, "they understood no vice, or cunning, but when they are taught by white men" (p.8). Oroonoko, just as white people, is not claimed to have possessed such innocence.

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko is arguably one of the most tragic novels in British Literature. The love story of two enslaved Surinam nobilities, who both meet their atrocious end, depicts shameful european history in regards of slavery. The words painted white men as vile creatures who were known to be dishonest and ruthless. Though one may say Behn’s work brought light to a subject so taboo, others argue that the novel plays into a racial narrative that minorities have struggled for centuries to break free from.While Behn’s explicit use of language expressed her disapproval of colonists, I believe her work embodied the notion of whitewashing the text gain approval of a particular group. Considering the fact, that Behn was the first women to live by her pen, and broke cultural norms, it is unclear if her intention was enclosing a shock factor, or exercising her ability to challenge societal norms for the greater good. Oroonoko describes how individuals are unable to be free people who grow intellectually and ethically, instead slavery holds these prisoners captive leaving them a shell of a person. Living in a european world where ignorance is used a bondage to restraint individuals from comprehending the severity of slavery, and the impact these texts have made has shaped ideological forces that shouldn't be disregarded. When deconstructing the text, I believe Alpha Behn’s story of Oroonoko falls under racisms constrained view and exhibits an unschooled thought in correlation of

Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave narrates the story of an African prince who went through many trials and tribulations to be with his love Imoinda. After the death of the general; Imoinda’s father and Oroonoko’s foster father, the two of them fall in love at first sight. They are subsequently separated when Imoinda accepts a gift of marriage from an old king, Oroonoko’s grandfather. Later, Imoinda is sold into slavery after the old king learns that she and Oroonoko had been together. Oroonoko is tricked and duped into captivity by the British, then unwillingly brought to Surinam as a slave. In Surinam he discovers that Imoinda is being held captive as well. They then reunite and Imoinda falls pregnant. This news impelled Oroonoko to fight for the freedom of his wife and unborn child; he could not stand the thought of his children being born into slavery. In his attempt he miserably fails and is brutally beaten. This forces him to make the decision to end their lives at his hand. Despite the separation and many obstacles they face in this story, their love for one another does not fade. This story displays love of a magnitude that seems to be only fictional today because it is so uncommon for people to make sacrifices that extreme for others