First Posting:
I think one of the most important themes that you could take from “Oroonoko”
would be heroism. There are several instances where he is presented with problems,
and he mostly handled them with the dignity that a heroic and honest man would.
He truly loved Imoinda and married her as described on page 206. “After a thousand
Assurances of his lasting flame, and her eternal Empire over him, she condescended
to receive him for her Husband” (Behn, 206). Before his marriage was even
consummated, his grandfather (the king) set out to steal Oroonoko’s beautiful bride.
“He sent the royal veil to Imoinda, he has a mind to honor with his bed. She is
secured for the king’s use and tis death to disobey” (Behn, 207). Instead of
immediately rescuing his wife or plotting to kill the king, he comes up with a plan to
consummate his marriage. I think it’s heroic that he loved her enough to make it
official and most importantly to risk it all. He, in turn, became a slave and he thought
he lost her. Fortunately, she was not actually killed, and they were reunited. Like
most heroic tales, this story ended very tragically. Oroonoko (now Ceasar) demanded
to be set free and treated fairly. Instead, he was beaten and would be killed. He
became concerned for his wife and (though I would not personally say this was
heroic) he decided to kill her before anyone else could make her suffer. “He grieved
to death, yet pleased at her noble resolution, took her up and embracing her with all
of the passion and languishment of a dying lover, drew his knife to kill the treasure of
his soul, the pleasure of his eyes, while tears trickled down his checks” (Behn, 242). I
think Behn wrote this to show the true character of a man even after losing his
position as a prince, being made a slave, and ultimately losing his wife and his own
life. It also drew attention to the hypocritical yet typical white churchgoers who
treated slaves terribly, and that was unheard of or very much taboo in that day.
In “A Modest Proposal”, the author uses satire to propose a ridiculous solution to “the
problem of preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden to
their parents or country” (Swift, 332) He persuades you to think that the rich should
eat the poor children. When I first read this, I did not know that it was supposed to
be satirical until the end and I found it absolutely appalling. However, I believe the
author’s purpose was to bring recognition to the public’s ignorance to go along with
such an idea just because they feel that the people are burdens.
Second Posting:
In Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” we see a theme of satire towards the separation of
classes/wealth and greed. There is an obvious poverty problem in Ireland during that
time and I feel as if the writer believes there are proposals to help fix this problem. In
his satire proposal you see him mention that there are people that could in fact
regular afford a child to consume if it were a real possibility, but there are currently
thousands of children that must sell their selves to labor or steal to live. This speaks
volume in consideration to the wage gap between the rich and poor. Also, the fact
that those in power have not proposed any kind of redistribution of wealth goes to
show the amount of greed that is in that society. Where landlords and the rich rather
the poor be homeless and starving that lose some of their wealth helping.
In the story “Oroonooko” I doubt it is the main theme of the story overall but there is
a theme of comparing the more “primitive” societies the more “advanced”. In the
beginning of the story when the author is describing the people
of Surinam she romanticize them and their culture compared to that of her own. She
notes that although the people are nearly naked that they are extremely modest and
none of them can be seen doing indecent action. She then goes on the describe the
Governor as a liar and guilty of infamy. Also, while describing Oroonooko himself she
uses comparisons to European features to describe him such as calling his nose that of
Roman and not African.
First Posting:
I think one of the most important themes that you could take from “Oroonoko”
would be heroism. There are several instances where he is presented with problems,
and he mostly handled them with the dignity that a heroic and honest man would.
He truly loved Imoinda and married her as described on page 206. “After a thousand
Assurances of his lasting flame, and her eternal Empire over him, she condescended
to receive him for her Husband” (Behn, 206). Before his marriage was even
consummated, his grandfather (the king) set out to steal Oroonoko’s beautiful bride.
“He sent the royal veil to Imoinda, he has a mind to honor with his bed. She is
secured for the king’s use and tis death to disobey” (Behn, 207). Instead of
immediately rescuing his wife or plotting to kill the king, he comes up with a plan to
consummate his marriage. I think it’s heroic that he loved her enough to make it
official and most importantly to risk it all. He, in turn, became a slave and he thought
he lost her. Fortunately, she was not actually killed, and they were reunited. Like
most heroic tales, this story ended very tragically. Oroonoko (now Ceasar) demanded
to be set free and treated fairly. Instead, he was beaten and would be killed. He
became concerned for his wife and (though I would not personally say this was
heroic) he decided to kill her before anyone else could make her suffer. “He grieved
to death, yet pleased at her noble resolution, took her up and embracing her with all
of the passion and languishment of a dying lover, drew his knife to kill the treasure of
his soul, the pleasure of his eyes, while tears trickled down his checks” (Behn, 242). I
think Behn wrote this to show the true character of a man even after losing his
position as a prince, being made a slave, and ultimately losing his wife and his own
life. It also drew attention to the hypocritical yet typical white churchgoers who
treated slaves terribly, and that was unheard of or very much taboo in that day.
In “A Modest Proposal”, the author uses satire to propose a ridiculous solution to “the
problem of preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden to
their parents or country” (Swift, 332) He persuades you to think that the rich should
eat the poor children. When I first read this, I did not know that it was supposed to
be satirical until the end and I found it absolutely appalling. However, I believe the
author’s purpose was to bring recognition to the public’s ignorance to go along with
such an idea just because they feel that the people are burdens.
Second Posting:
In Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” we see a theme of satire towards the separation of
classes/wealth and greed. There is an obvious poverty problem in Ireland during that
time and I feel as if the writer believes there are proposals to help fix this problem. In
his satire proposal you see him mention that there are people that could in fact
regular afford a child to consume if it were a real possibility, but there are currently
thousands of children that must sell their selves to labor or steal to live. This speaks
volume in consideration to the wage gap between the rich and poor. Also, the fact
that those in power have not proposed any kind of redistribution of wealth goes to
show the amount of greed that is in that society. Where landlords and the rich rather
the poor be homeless and starving that lose some of their wealth helping.
In the story “Oroonooko” I doubt it is the main theme of the story overall but there is
a theme of comparing the more “primitive” societies the more “advanced”. In the
beginning of the story when the author is describing the people
of Surinam she romanticize them and their culture compared to that of her own. She
notes that although the people are nearly naked that they are extremely modest and
none of them can be seen doing indecent action. She then goes on the describe the
Governor as a liar and guilty of infamy. Also, while describing Oroonooko himself she
uses comparisons to European features to describe him such as calling his nose that of
Roman and not African.
First Posting:
I think one of the most important themes that you could take from “Oroonoko”
would be heroism. There are several instances where he is presented with problems,
and he mostly handled them with the dignity that a heroic and honest man would.
He truly loved Imoinda and married her as described on page 206. “After a thousand
Assurances of his lasting flame, and her eternal Empire over him, she condescended
to receive him for her Husband” (Behn, 206). Before his marriage was even
consummated, his grandfather (the king) set out to steal Oroonoko’s beautiful bride.
“He sent the royal veil to Imoinda, he has a mind to honor with his bed. She is
secured for the king’s use and tis death to disobey” (Behn, 207). Instead of
immediately rescuing his wife or plotting to kill the king, he comes up with a plan to
consummate his marriage. I think it’s heroic that he loved her enough to make it
official and most importantly to risk it all. He, in turn, became a slave and he thought
he lost her. Fortunately, she was not actually killed, and they were reunited. Like
most heroic tales, this story ended very tragically. Oroonoko (now Ceasar) demanded
to be set free and treated fairly. Instead, he was beaten and would be killed. He
became concerned for his wife and (though I would not personally say this was
heroic) he decided to kill her before anyone else could make her suffer. “He grieved
to death, yet pleased at her noble resolution, took her up and embracing her with all
of the passion and languishment of a dying lover, drew his knife to kill the treasure of
his soul, the pleasure of his eyes, while tears trickled down his checks” (Behn, 242). I
think Behn wrote this to show the true character of a man even after losing his
position as a prince, being made a slave, and ultimately losing his wife and his own
life. It also drew attention to the hypocritical yet typical white churchgoers who
treated slaves terribly, and that was unheard of or very much taboo in that day.
In “A Modest Proposal”, the author uses satire to propose a ridiculous solution to “the
problem of preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden to
their parents or country” (Swift, 332) He persuades you to think that the rich should
eat the poor children. When I first read this, I did not know that it was supposed to
be satirical until the end and I found it absolutely appalling. However, I believe the
author’s purpose was to bring recognition to the public’s ignorance to go along with
such an idea just because they feel that the people are burdens.
Second Posting:
In Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” we see a theme of satire towards the separation of
classes/wealth and greed. There is an obvious poverty problem in Ireland during that
time and I feel as if the writer believes there are proposals to help fix this problem. In
his satire proposal you see him mention that there are people that could in fact
regular afford a child to consume if it were a real possibility, but there are currently
thousands of children that must sell their selves to labor or steal to live. This speaks
volume in consideration to the wage gap between the rich and poor. Also, the fact
that those in power have not proposed any kind of redistribution of wealth goes to
show the amount of greed that is in that society. Where landlords and the rich rather
the poor be homeless and starving that lose some of their wealth helping.
In the story “Oroonooko” I doubt it is the main theme of the story overall but there is
a theme of comparing the more “primitive” societies the more “advanced”. In the
beginning of the story when the author is describing the people
of Surinam she romanticize them and their culture compared to that of her own. She
notes that although the people are nearly naked that they are extremely modest and
none of them can be seen doing indecent action. She then goes on the describe the
Governor as a liar and guilty of infamy. Also, while describing Oroonooko himself she
uses comparisons to European features to describe him such as calling his nose that of
Roman and not African.
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