This study will compare Oroonoko in Aphra Behn's

This study will compare Oroonoko in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko and Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright's Native Son, focusing on the authors' views and their conception of the characters in relation to racism. The study will argue that both authors have created courageous and defiant black men determined to resist racism with any means necessary, although Behn has also created a black man designed to show that blacks are and/or can be more civilized, more humane than the white people who claim to be the representatives of civilization and society.

Behn plays the role of narrator as well as character in her novel. The purpose of her work is to try to convince the reader that Oroonoko, the so-called "Royal Slave" is not the frightening and savage creature which Europeans fear he is, but is instead more civilized than the Europeans themselves. Behn, however, goes even further in trying to turn ideas about racism inside-out. The Christian Europeans, she suggests, in her depiction of the encounters between them and Oroonoko, are the true savages, and this situation is made clear by comparing them to the "Royal Slave," who is shown capable of being humane and civilized even when not treated the same by whites.

Bigger Thomas in Wright's novel stands in contrast to Oroonoko in terms of their responses to the world and particularly white society. Both characters meet white racism with defiance and violence, but Oroonoko meets it with civility and nobility as well, which suggests that Behn

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protagonist's confusion, Behn as narrator is necessary to give the story form and sense. Also, the viewpoint of the writer/narrator is crucial, because the many possible interpretations of the events of Oroonoko's life would confuse the reader without Behn's clarifying perspective. As the one supplying the narration and the interpretive perspective, Behn guides the reader through Oroonoko's life. However, she does it with anything but an objective viewpoint. She is bound and determined that we see the goings-on just as she herself saw them, and she presents in the process a very well-defined outlook on the contrast between this "noble savage" and the "civilized" Europeans, a contrast which at almost every point favors Oroonoko. Behn claims to be concerned only with "relating the truth" and intends not to "adorn it with any accidents but such as arrived in earnest to him." She adds that her allegedly true account "shall come simply into the world, recommended by its own proper merits and natural intrigues, there being enough of reality to support it, and to render it diverting, without the addition of invention" (Behn 1867). In other words, so she claims, the story will be a straightforward and accurate account of what happene

Category: Literature - T