Oroonoko Analysis

When facing unimaginable circumstances, there are some people who may compromise their dignity or integrity to make their life easier. In the case of Abd al-Rahman, the main character in “Prince Among Slaves,” some can say the prince compromised his integrity for the sake of his family. He doesn’t compromise his dignity and even builds, what some would consider, a dignified life during his time as a slave. “Prince Among Slaves” emphasizes keeping one’s integrity or compromising it when it may be necessary.

Behn begins Oroonoko with a description of the native people: they have long black hair, wear jewelry and paint flowers on their

Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, describes a life-altering journey that the protagonist, Marlow, experiences in the African Congo.  The story explores the historical period of colonialism in Africa to exemplify Marlow's struggles.  Marlow, like other Europeans of his time, is brought up to believe certain things about colonialism, but his views change as he experiences colonialism first hand. This essay will explore Marlow's view of colonialism, which is shaped through his experiences and also from his relation to Kurtz.  Marlow's understanding of Kurtz's experiences show him the effects colonialism can have on a man's soul.

In the Photograph Album of Cashmere& Ladakh,1886, H.W.B depicts the age of imperialism through his photography of the 1st Batallion East Surrey Regiment of Great Britain. The photos allow one to make observations without any biased inputs such as writings. Using one’s own

Behn continues to lessen Oroonoko’s heroic stature by attempting to Europeanize him and diminish his self-identity. A hero is known for their self-confidence and uses that to help others. By getting rid of someone’s identity, he loses any sort of possibility of succeeding

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko is a tale of an African prince and victorious general, Oroonoko, who loses his heart to the lovely Imoinda. First published in the year 1688 when African slavery through the barbaric trans-Atlantic slave business became established as an economic, transcontinental system. This tale draws on the popular literary themes of aristocratic romance, social censure and travel narrative. It indicates a few ways in which the British were starting to view cultural and racial differences and their personal contribution to the slave business and colonialism. Behn’s tale, somewhat broadly, is one text that demonstrates the way European literature on the subjects of slavery, colonisation and race evolved in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has allowed me to view the world through a multitude of new lenses. In seeing Kurtz and Marlow’s disintegration when removed from society’s watchful eye, I began to understand that all people have a streak of darkness in them under the right circumstances. While the narrator, and many readers at the time of this novella’s publication, believed that the African natives being colonized were “savages”, this book sheds light on the true brutes in this scenario: the thoughtless Europeans. The other complexity that I never truly understood until reading this book, is the idea that there is a single story told about Africans in Western literature. Africa is portrayed as weak, primitive, and impoverished in most books

In Cry, the beloved country, Alan Paton tells the story of his journey across Africa, his experiences with the colonized Africa, and the destruction of the beautiful, pre-colonialism native land of Africa. Heart of Darkness also tells the story of a man and his experiences with colonialism, but a man who comes from a different time period and a very different background than Alan Paton’s Stephen Kumalo. Although, both Joseph Conrad and Alan Paton portray the colonized areas as very negative, death filled, and sinful places, it is when one analyzes the descriptions of the native lands of Africa that the authors reasons for their disapproval of colonialism are truly revealed. When comparing the writing styles of Alan Paton and Joseph Conrad,

Marlow tells his shipmates on the boat (the Nelly) that the natives passed him “within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (16). Marlow’s story of his experience exhibits how the Europeans captured the natives and forced them to work; to strip their homeland of its resources and natural beauty. When the Europeans colonize Africa, they do not want to help the African people, but exploit them and put them to work for their own desire of obtaining ivory, rubber, and other resources and goods. As the Europeans imperialize the area, they do not build culture or assist in the development of the Congo region, but break down culture as they enslave the natives and take away their rights, along with stripping the area of resources and natural, earthly beauty, which is conveyed through the cruel physical treatment towards the natives. This treatment is also presented through the literary devices that Conrad decides to use to reveal the experiences of the natives to the

A famous criticism of Conrad’s novella is called An Image of Africa, which was written by an African native named Chinua Achebe. In Achebe’s criticisms of Heart of Darkness, he points out the difference between descriptions of the European woman and the African woman, who was Kurtz’s mistress. The narrator describes the European woman as being calm and mature, and the African woman as being “savage” (341 Norton). Even though many writers claim that Marlow is kind to the Africans by bringing light to their situation, the real problem does not lie in his description of their situations, but his descriptions of the people themselves (30 Heart of darkness Interpretations).

“negotiate not only the imbalances of their relations with their own men but also the baroque and violent array of hierarchal rules and restrictions that structured their relations with imperial men and women” Clintock p.6). Exploitation is the colonizers logo and women in this novel are being manipulated for the benefit of the patriarchal society in the same manner the colonizer deploys the colonized for his own means.

As Europeans discovered other cultures during the Age of Exploration, travelers returned with knowledge of new religious, political, and economic systems. Aphra Behn’s seventeenth-century travel narrative, Oroonoko, describes the life of Oroonoko, an African prince and slave in Surinam, while contrasting the cruelty of the Europeans with the morality of the Africans and natives of Surinam. Thomas More’s sixteenth-century Utopia displays his subtle criticism of English society behind the words of his character Raphael Hythloday, who travels the world and explores the rationality of Utopia. These authors criticize many of the conventions of their time periods through their characters’ explorations into new ideas and territories. In Oroonoko and Utopia, nature and reason lead the natives’ governments and societies instead of the corruption of the wealthy and noble Europeans.

For ages, man exemplified their desire to perform inequalities to those weaker than they. From the oppressor in the congregation, to the monarch and his crown court, it appears that man have a will to take over and dictate others. Oroonoko, by Aphra Behn, shows us that slavery is immoral, shameful, disheartening, and worse than death. Liberty is an assured human right. Oroonoko is a controlling story about the sufferings of a chivalrous, gracious prince named Oroonoko. Through the novel, Oroonoko is presented to be a heroic prince and a friend to numerous people especially to his fellow slaves who looked up to him and respected him like he was a special person to them. He is given command over an army and validates his soldierly and strategical skills by winning his battles and conquering his enemies. In the beginning of the novel,

Firstly, the concept of otherness is presented by Behn, the first instance of this concept appears within the first pages of the book. Behn describes the Natives, in a way many would assume was to provide a mental image, which in reality it does, she also uses this same technique in describing Imoinda and more importantly, Oroonoko. “His eyes were the most awful color that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of them being like snow, as were his teeth…” Why would Behn go into such great detail to describe the physical and cultural aspects of only non-white characters, while almost ignoring the white characters and their physical characteristics? For example the description of

Imoinda was viewed as a property, yet she gained much respect from the slaves and they viewed her as a leader. She seemed to have overcome the stereotype of being a property, yet she still allowed Oroonoko to take her and her child’s life. She “accepted her death and smiled with joy” as it was occurring (224). The murder that Oroonoko decided to act upon can be viewed as a heroic move, but also