Robinson Crusoe And Oroonoko Essay Research Paper

Robinson Crusoe And Oroonoko Essay, Research Paper

In 17th and 18th century literature one finds many examples of exotic

travelling adventures, and glamorous stories of discovery. Examples of these are

Aphra Behn?s Oroonoko, written in 1688, and Daniel Defoe?s Robinson Crusoe,

written in 1719. In both of these novels there are various indications that the

foreigner encountered is much more European than the reader may have first

thought. The foreigner is described in various terms, linking him to the white

and European man. These descriptions at many times are obvious, but there are

also very subtle indications of the Europeanizing of the foreigner. The average

European reader had not yet encountered people of such vast cultural and

physical differences and would read about them in books. The colonization of the

exotic places of the world, was an emerging idea, and in a time of discovery and

travel, many people were excited to hear about the different foods, animals,

land etc. In Aphra Behn?s Oroonoko and Defoe?s Robinson Crusoe, one finds

many indications of the foreign European. It would seem that these descriptions

are meant to appeal to the European audience, and make the exotic other more

familiar with the audience. At a time of trade and expansion, travel and

discovery, these two novels are set in the exotic worlds of the more primitive

lands, where great cultural, visual, and geographical differences exist. ?The

difference between Europe and those places, the West Indies and Americas, viewed

as sources of wealth, were themselves used to produce pleasure and fantasy for

the English reader? (Wiseman, 90). Throughout both of these works the authors

have portrayed the foreigner with European traits, physical and psychological,

in order to appeal to an audience which has just begun to understand other

nations, and perhaps is not open to accept a foreigner as one of the main

characters.

In Robinson Crusoe, the author uses animals as a way of first introducing the

differences with exotic lands, and attract the European audience to the

mysterious creatures that they have never seen before. The animals which Crusoe

first hears ?made such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never heard the

like? (Defoe 40). He continues on page 47, to say that these noises and

animals were ?impossible to describe.? The reader feels the suspense and

terror, imagining themselves stranded on an island, with creatures never seen

before. Perhaps the way we would feel on another planet discovering new life,

and a new environment. For those that fear the exotic and foreign animals and

peoples, Defoe and Behn provide other subtle descriptions, which attract the

audience to their characters.

Behn introduces the creatures of Surinam in a positive manner in order to

maintain the reader, and welcome the Europeans into accepting the Negro Oroonoko

as the hero of this novel. The exotic other is not scary, and not indescribable,

as in Robinson Crusoe. She describes the ?little Rarities?? (Behn 2) and

concludes the description that there were ?other Birds and Beasts of wonderful

and surprizing Forms, Shapes, and Colours.? The reader is prepared to accept

the remaining story of the hero Oroonoko, and the criticisms of the Christian

?white? men.

Oroonoko is described as being ?adorned with a native beauty, so

transcending of all those of his gloomy race? (Behn 6). The description of his

looks imply that he has a different and more attractive appearance than his ?gloomy

race?. On page eight, Aphra Behn describes Oroonoko with his nose being ?rising

and Roman, instead of African and flat?. He has long hair (8) and lips are not

like the ?turn?d lips, which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes? (Behn

8) The reason that Oroonoko is so beautiful, is because he is more European

looking than the rest of his race. Aphra Behn needs to appeal to a European and

white reader, and in order to make her Oroonoko the hero of this story, the

reader must accept him. This indicates that Behn believes the English audience

is more prejudiced against the exotic other, rather than interested in it.

Robinson Crusoe saves Friday, and describes him in European terms, thus

making his rescuing of a cannibal, and befriending of him acceptable. When

Friday is first mentioned the reader feels anxious, because Crusoe has just

decided that he wants to save a cannibal, so that he may have a slave. In saving

Friday, the English audience must accept that Crusoe has just befriended a

man-eating ?savage?, and the audience too will need to accept and befriend

him. ?He had all the sweetness and softness of an European in his countenance

too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like

wool?his nose small, not flat like the Negroes, a very good mouth, thin lips?

(Defoe 203). It seems that the emphasis is in describing the foreign character

as non-Negro. Crusoe describes Friday as someone without the typical Negro

characteristics, yet the emphasis makes it almost impossible to deny the fact

that Friday does have Negro characteristics. The fact that he says ?not like

the Negroes? rather than not like the rest of the Negroes, means that Friday

is not Negro, yet the description is so full of Negroid comparisons, it seems

almost like Crusoe has chosen to save the one cannibal that does not have

typical Negro features. This serves the same purpose as it does in Oroonoko, in

describing a main foreign character as European as possible, in order to appeal

to the European audience.

Oroonoko is not only European looking, but also has European education and

knowledge, which makes the reader even more attracted to this Negro hero.

Oroonoko was trained by a Frenchman in ?Morals, Language, and Science? (Behn

7). ?He had heard of the late Civil Wars in England, and the deplorable death

of our great Monarch? (Behn 7). Behn is referring to the up to date

information Oroonoko has, and that he is knowledgeable in many respects. She

goes on to say that he was ?as if his Education had been in some European

Court? (7). She explicitly is saying he might as well have been white and

European, because his beauty and education are of that background anyway. The

17th century English reader can look at him as a European with black skin, and

nothing else is different about him. This makes his slavery even more dreadful,

because not only is he noble, but he is very European. The reader not only

accepts Oroonoko, but actually feels sympathy anger for him.

Aphra Behn not only wishes to describe the beauty and education of the hero,

but of his lover?s as well. On page six, Behn says that ?there are Beauties

that can charm of that Colour.? This is to introduce the idea that the Negro

women are beautiful, specifically the one that Oroonoko has fallen in love with.

Imoinda is so beautiful that Behn has seen ?white men sighing after her?

(9). She is telling the reader that if Imoinda is good enough for these white

men, than imagine how beautiful she is. She has made the heroine of the story as

beautiful and European as Oroonoko. The reader will feel romance, adventure,