Oroonoko Passage 5 Page 62

Post 1: Notes for OROONOKO

Passage: And why, said he, my dear friends and fellow sufferers, should we be slaves to uknown people? Have they vanquished us nobly in fight? Have they honourable battle? No, but we are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women,fools, and cowards… Do you not hear every day how they upbraid each other with infamy of life, below the wildest savages? They all replied with one accord. No, no, no; Caeser has spoke like a great captain, like. A great king.

Passage five on page 62 of Aphra Behn’s “Oroonkoko” asks the audience to know about how the slaves felt about being enslaved. Who were these slaves and why didn’t they choose to escape? Why was it that only a few had an innate power to want to be free? This passage by Behn shows the dynamic struggles as a slave through emphasizing the generations, locations, and the liberties of the circumstances of a slave. Behn describes Oroonkoko as someone with European features and an overall handsome look. When Oroonkoko is described by the slaves he is known as “speaking like a great captain, like a great king.^[1]” If all the slaves had the power to speak why wouldn’t they all embody this Caesar like energy? Behn only looks at slaves through what she sees. The world that Behn lives in underestimates the power of the slave (Berlin, 1998) says Berlin in a 1998 article of Aphra Behn. For us to expand who the slaves really were we should not limit ourselves to Behn’s limiting beliefs about what she may think a slave is capable of doing.

The generations, locations, and liberties of a slave are all controlled by their masters. “The struggle between master and slave never proceeded on the basis of equality and was always informed by the master’s monopoly of force.”^[2] Slaves had free will to leave their circumstance or speak up. Due to the confined control that the master’s had over their mind they did not know what to do for themselves. To go against the grain of their circumstances would be unstable.^[3] Some slaves did not want to negotiate this power dynamic between the slave and the master due to their circumstances. They always had the power to escape. The slaves did not want to be obedient^[4] to their masters. There is much more to be said about slaves than what is written in the book. Behn has limiting beliefs about slaves. To fully understand and rationalize with the slaves is to understand why they were confined by their generations, societies, and liberties. Instead this book only gives us the story of a handsome tragic hero named Oroonkoko, who is never rationalized with nor personally understood. Much like the other characters portrayed in this book.

^[1] Caesar spoke like a great captain, like a great king.: “Many Thousands Gone” Ira Berlin, “Slaves had lesser of a choice than other people.

^[2] “The struggle between master and slave never proceeded on the basis of equality and was always informed by the master’s monopoly of force: The slaves were never defined, they were defined by their masters,

^[3] To go against the grain of their circumstances would be unstable “Many Thousands Gone” Ira Berlin the slaves’ masters were dominant in this relationship. Creating the location of slaves, influencing their children, and enslaving them.

^[4] Obedience: the slaves lost sight of being the master’s equal.