European Superiority in Oroonoko
Throughout Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, we can see the comparison between European and African culture occurring in many places. In a majority of the imagery, Behn's attitudes can be seen behind the text weighing heavily toward portraying European characteristics as socially more admirable.
Oroonoko's introduction acquaints us with a person so refined in every way as to be almost god-like. Every feature of this great warrior-prince is shown in detail to be the most beautiful one could hope to behold. The narrator says,"...he was adored as the wonder of all that world, and a darling of the soldiers." (1869) He is even said to have,"...a native beauty so transcending all those of his gloomy race that he struck an awe and reverence even in those that knew not his quality;..." (1870) Clearly, this is the description of a person destined for greatness. Oroonoko, throughout his adventures, lives by these very features. After Oroonoko becomes sold as a slave, for example, he becomes a friend of the narrator and the overseer in the New World thro...
Oroonoko – Slaughter of the Human Spirit. Aphra Behn introduces her characters in Oroonoko as beautiful people who possess pure, innocent love. Behn does this in an effort to make her readers feel and question. Her poetic description of their emotions magnifies the horror of the final scene. Behn's romantic love story is brought to a tragic end through brutality and death.
... like Hester. He is implying that she is the victim and that the Puritans are actually at fault for this sin. Hawthorne's main goal is to convey the Puritans as sinful and unholy. He does not approve of the sin they hide and he thinks there should be punishment for their actions.
“Different but Equal” is a video in which Basil Davidson, the narrator, attempts to expand and heighten the understanding that Western civilization has about Africa. Often thought of as underdeveloped or uncivilized, Basil focuses mainly on the accomplishments of Africans throughout the years and uses them to contrast the surprisingly popular belief of African inferiority. Just a few of the main issues being brought up are how Europeans routinely discredited African accomplishments, the often disputed race of the Egyptians and their society, and why the thought that Africans are ‘uncivilized’ isn’t accurate. The video uses science, archaeology and history combined with the input of well-known researchers to give a more accurate depiction of
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin. Over time, concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common lineage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin,, have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th century, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force is justified by these views.
In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance in male-dominated societies, where women are absolutely vulnerable.
In “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne uses the hypocritical nature of Young Goodman Browns neighbors and friends to show the hypocritical nature of the puritan people. In the story, Young Goodman Brown is led by the devil to a witching party in the woods. At the witching party he sees all the people he thought to be honorable and pious. He sees his minister, and Goody Cloyse, the woman who taught him his catechisms, meeting with the devil. He even sees his wife about to join the commune but doesn’t see whether she does or not because he resists the devil and wakes up by a tree. After witnessing these things in the woods Young Goodman Brown can’t look at the people he loved and looked up to in the same way anymore. He becomes a bitter and distrustful old man because of their hypocr...
In many of Hawthorne’s stories, there are several instances where his main characters distinguish a sense of sin and guilt for what they have done throughout the story. In Robert P. Ellis’ article, “Nathaniel Hawthorne”, published in MagillLiterature Plus, Ellis states that “Often, Hawthorne’s characters cannot throw off the burden of a vague and irrational but weighty burden of guilt” (Ellis 4). Ellis regards characters in other Hawthorne stories as “examples of such guilt-ridden and essentially faithless men” (Ellis 5). Early in “Young Goodman Brown”, Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to take a night into the woods. When venturing through the woods, he stumbles upon a character that is portrayed to be the devil. During their meeting, the devil nonchalantly tells Brown that the people around him are not what they seem. The devil says that many men and women close to him are not the purely righteous people that they claim to be. Brown refuses to believe what he has just been told, in fact, he goes so far to loudly proclaim that “With heaven above and Faith below...
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
First, we will start with Goodman Brown. He is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story titled “Young Goodman Brown”. “Hawthorne could not escape the influence of Puritan society” (McCabe). I think that Hawthorne’s own past is and complications are reveled in his story about Goodman Brown. I believe that Goodman Brown has had a rough past and is trying to reach beyond his past in order to reach heaven. Goodman has some major problems with his wife, Faith, and everyone else in his community. I think that he is seeing everyone as perfect people, but he is having impure thoughts about himself and his past. In order to deal with these problems within himself, he is making up that everyone has this awful bad side. When he goes into the forest, he believes he is talking to the devil with looks much like his grandfather. The devil is feeding him bad thoughts about everyone he knows, even his own father and his wife Faith. Next, I believe that Goodman Brown has had a rough past and in order for him to overcome this within himself he must search for attention. This attention may not be needed from his wife or community members, I believe it is needed from him. He is feeling overwhelmed with obligations from his wife and peers that he has no time to decide whether this type of life is right for him. So, in search for the answer to his questions about life, he turns to the devil and takes his...
...per to acknowledge the profounder contexts in which Europa and Africanaii interact within the scene.
Young Goodman Brown is a short story where the main purpose is to show the social issue of religion during the Puritan time. Although the author Nathaniel Hawthorne had not being living in that time, he came from a long line of Puritans. He wrote Young Goodman Brown to show the flaws of the Puritans’ view of religion. They made God seem heartless and mean spirited, someone who just used humans for entertainment. The short story Young Goodman Brown demonstrates that people should test their faith of their religious beliefs and even people considered upright can fall short of their own religious faiths from temptations and imperfections. In addition, the story shows that there is some degree of evil nature in everyone because of the freewill to choose right or wrong.
Although there are many other important factors, the main cause of the rise of imperialism was most certainly economic. The Age of Empire, by Eric J. Hobsbawn, provides an interpretation of New Imperialism. Hobsbawn calls imperialism “a natural by-product of the international economy” (Sherman pg 177). He is basically saying that imperialism is dependent on the rivalries of competing industries, which continually drive the international economy. Hobsbawn also dictates the need for external markets. The Industrial Revolution created many products that needed markets, thus creating a need of colonies. Hobsbawn believed that the overproduction of the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression could be solved. He also realized that many businessmen knew that they could make a large profit off of China’s large population. For example, if every one of the three hundred million Chinese purchased one box of tin-tacks the businessmen knew that there would be a huge profit, consequently increasing the desire for colonization of weaker countries.
In conclusion Oyono criticizes the colonial time to a great extent to make the audience aware of the hypocritical method used to exploit the land and the destruction caused when citizens like Toundi who believed the false policy of assimilation. The Africans may have been claimed to be less civilized which is ironical to the idea of assimilation. Examples such as the priest or the immoral Madame are a part of the weak system which was enforced in Cameroon to civilize the natives. Such system which cannot follow its own rules cannot aid in controlling or improving the lives of others. The critics helped the audience to learn more about the problems and the ironical actions happening to Cameroon which could definitely not bring justice to the locals.
...econd African Writers Conference, Stockholm, 1986. Ed. Kirsten Holst Petersen. Upsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1998. 173-202.
Having done the above analysis on my favourite text, “Anowa” by Ama Ataa Aidoo, I realise that my like for the text have heightened because the analysis of Anowa has given me a deeper understanding of Africa’s colonialism. I now know what actually led to our colonialisation (the betrayal) and how it began(the bond of 1844) through the personal lives of Anowa and Kofi.