Equiano and Oroonoko

There are many similarities between Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative. Although written one hundred years apart the similarities are apparent and include: Christian rhetoric, the slavery issues, the authority of the narrator/author, authenticity, both of the characters were from prominent families, and both stories begin with an apology.
Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko suggest that Christians are not the outstanding citizens they believe themselves to be when they do not believe another man when he gives his word, solely based on the belief that he is somehow less than the white man. Does the Bible not teach equality among all men, if so can it be said the captain of the slave ship cannot be the Christian he professes to be. The faith expressed by Equiano in a higher power is equal to Aphra Behn’s faith she expressed in Oroonoko. Equiano was puzzled and struggled with his newfound faith in the Christian God. Throughout the story he wonders why the whites enslave blacks when the Bible says they are created equal. Oroonoko is a slave just as Equiano is and although the two men’s stories are one hundred years apart both shed light on the horrors of slavery and the effects it has on the people involved in the slave trade.
Both narrators seem to struggle with the authority/power that they lack. While reading Aphra Behn’s story it seems that she believes she can change the world or at least influence the people who can. When her authority and power come into question, when she really has an opportunity to prove that she has the power to influence decisions, she does not exercise that right and in fact flees the situation altogether. As a result Oroonoko dies a horrible death. The same can be said for Equiano. When he and his friend John Annis are working together on a ship and men come on board to take him back to his master who previously freed him there is nothing Equiano can do, and in fact when he tries he had to paint himself white in order to serve John Annis’ former owner with papers to appear in court. Here he realizes that he does not have the influence he believed he had.
The Authenticity of both Oroonoko and Equiano have been questioned because there is no proof that Oroonoko even existed and although there is proof that Equiano was truly a real person his origins have come into question because of his description of his native land and the uncovering of new facts.
The two men in the stories are also similar because they were both thought to come from royal or upper class families. The way Aphra Behn describes Oroonoko and the response he evokes from Trefery and his friends makes the reader believe that there was such a difference in Oroonoko’s stature and composure that he stood out from the rest of the slaves tremendously. In fact, the man whom he belonged to treated Oroonoko as more than a common slave. This is evident in the mere fact that he was able to be in the house of his owner and not be working but instead participating in conversations. Equiano had similar instances of being treated as more than a slave. This is apparent in his being able to read and write, most slaves were not able to read and write because their owners worked them up to 14 hours a day six days a week. Equiano was fortunate and set well apart from his peers by the mere fact that he was able to publish his own story during a time when even freed black men had few rights.
Both of the writers give an apology in the beginning of their tales for the content of their writing. The reader gets a sense in the beginning that although the author has a message to give, the receiver of that message may not want the message being sent out.
The similarities in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative are evident. Both stories center on the slave experience and their authors face some of the same challenges in having their works published and even having their authenticity questioned.

Believe

There are some of you skeptics out there who still believe that perhaps Equiano did not truely come from Africa simply because of the difference in the way the story sounds when he changes from discribing Africa to telling the tale of his life's story from that point on. I ask you to consider the fact that he was only 11 years of age when he was kidnapped and perhaps the memory of that time was so painful that it was better for him to use a different tone when talking aabout that time in his life.
Comments on this are welcome.
Dana

Dana Housch
EH 236
September 12, 2005
Essay 1

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko is a story about slavery. Behn does not seem to be opposed to the concept of slavery, yet in the end we will see that she is opposed to the brutality of the situation when she describes in detail the beating and murder of Oroonoko.
Oroonoko is portrayed as a brave young prince who has survived many wars but like all of the other people in his kingdom he seems to possess a certain innocence. Behn goes into detail describing this innocence and trusting nature probably in order to help the reader understand why the prince and his friends could be so easily tricked into boarding the British slave ship.
Imoinda was described as being the most beautiful creature Behn had ever seen. The beauty of Imoinda is further seen when Behn describes the other slaves doing her work for her because they were in awe of her beauty. In the story Oroonoko’s grandfather saw Imoinda and took her for himself as a wife. This move by Oroonoko’s grandfather seems to be very selfish and cruel considering that he knew Oroonoko was in love with Imoinda. So one is left to wonder how much Oroonoko’s grandfather truly cared for him. When this consideration is being made it should also be taken into account that he was the one who was responsible for Oroonoko’s mood when he entered the slave ship. His grandfather told him that Imoinda had been put to death because she dishonored him, when in reality she had been sold as a slave.
Behn who is the author/narrator of the story tells Oroonoko’s story from the beginning yet she was not present during the entirety of the story. She goes into detail of the country in which Oroonoko is from and the character of the people who live there, yet she has never been to it herself. If the reader believes that it is a true story, as Behn would have you believe this means that Oroonoko is a very detail oriented man. Why then did he not escape the plantation? If he was so detail oriented then surely he would have given more thought to the problem of escorting the slaves to their salvation.
Behn, describes the bravery and the level of knowledge that Oroonoko possesses and seems to be impressed by him. She is obviously not against slavery and yet it is obvious to the reader that she is horrified by the cruelty that Oroonoko endured as he died. In the story the plantation owner beat Oroonoko and tortured him before cutting him up limb by limb and having the parts of his body sent to the other plantations as a warning to would be escapees. One must wonder why, if Behn was so opposed to what happened, she did not make a move to save Oroonoko’s life. She was a member of the high society and one would assume that she would have a voice in what was happening, however small it may be. The move Behn made to write the story about slavery in her day and age was a brave one. The only lingering question is if she was so brave to write about slavery why then did she not act on Oroonoko’s behalf. It is a question that may have several answers. The answer that one must consider is that although brave with the pen, she was not a hero in real life. Her only bravery is with the pen.
The story of Oroonoko is a story of slavery and how cruel the situation can become when the accepted standards are questioned or the rules disobeyed. Behn does an excellent job of describing the cruelty that occurred when the accepted behavior is not followed.

Catching up on the semester

Dear Students,

I know that you have had to face a wide variety of circumstances as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Please catch up on the reading as soon as possible: I would like to resume the class without major changes in the syllabus. Reader responses will not be due on Tuesday. We will discuss together how best to make up for lost time when classes resume. See you on Tuesday.

—Dr. Shlensky

Hurricane Katrina aftermath (Tuesday afternoon, August 30)

Many thanks to my friends and family for their expressions of concern about me. I am well and my property was not damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The storm yesterday was dramatic, but not really scary. Lots of wind and rain, sounds of explosions (from trees falling or transformers exploding), and a general sense of the raging power of brooding nature unleashed. By the end of the afternoon yesterday I was able to walk around outside in my neighborhood, being careful to avoid flying debris from branches and roofs and whatever else wasn't tied down.

Mobile was quite a scene post-Katrina today, although we in the city (as opposed to the outlying coastal areas of Alabama) saw nothing like the devastation of Mississippi or Louisiana. The TV images of flooding and destruction, and the reports of many deaths, make it sound quite horrific around New Orleans and in the bayou/beach regions. New Orleans wasn't hit as hard as it could have been, but it sounds like the post-hurricane flooding has devastated the city for perhaps months to come. Apparently waters are still rising in downtown N.O. even this afternoon (Tuesday).

My battery-operated radio has been my main source of information over the last day and a half. I appreciate the colloquial and chatty quality of some reports from local stations, which remind me of the days after the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco in 1989. As after that disaster, people have been encouraged to call in to the radio stations to share their personal stories of enduring the storm, of needing help, of witnessing the incredible. Others call in offering rooms for the homeless. On the other hand, I've also had to turn off the radio in disgust at times when stations seemed to exploit stories of personal misery and hardship. There's a very thin line sometimes between crass commercial hype (with unctuous musical punctuation) and helpful information. Insurance companies run repetitive ads about how to get in touch with assessment agents. The reporters are in their element, apparently, with a real disaster to cover.

I drove around Mobile this morning. There were fallen trees, downed power lines and light poles and cell towers, and debris of all kinds everywhere; downtown Mobile had been flooded yesterday, but was drying out today. All of the traffic lights are out, electricity is down just about everywhere, stores are almost universally closed, and people are driving from service station to station looking for gas for their cars or electricity generators. Occasional robberies and looting have been reported. Some bridges and tunnels are closed around town, and the causeway that crosses the Mobile Bay is impassable (I-10 is open, however). A lot of dead birds — pelicans, mainly — litter the Interstate, victims of disorientation or shock, I suppose. Local people are out and about today, cleaning up the mess, assessing damages. I moved big branches from my driveway and yard yesterday while the wind was still blowing, and then I raked up smaller debris (just like after Hurricane Ivan). The scene looks a good deal worse than after Ivan last year, despite our having been much closer to the eye of the earlier storm. I think being on the eastern side of this storm made the wind and rain effects worse for us, even though we were more than a hundred miles from the eye of Katrina.

My electricity is out; that's really the worst of the effects for me — not bad at all compared to nearby areas. Today it's sunny and in the 90s, so my house is sweltering without any air conditioning or fans. Nor do I have refrigeration, so I've been eating what can still be eaten and opening a lot of cans. The power company is saying that we'll be without electricity for days if not weeks, because given the scale of the devastation across the coastal area, repair crews are stretched extremely thin.

I decided to leave Mobile for a day or two. I'm writing this email from a Marriott Extended Stay Hotel lobby in Pensacola. But I'm not spending the night here; there don't seem to be any available hotel rooms in this area, so I may head further eastward this afternoon to look for a motel. I've also brought a tent with me, so I may camp out tonight (which would in any case be more comfortable than staying in my house). I imagine that the University will open up again on Wednesday or Thursday.

Thanks again for your many messages and thoughts. I'll let you know how things go when I can.

—Lincoln