The narrator in Oroonoko appears to see the Prince through some sort of rose-colored glasses. He or she starts by saying that everything about Oroonoko has not been embellished in any way and that "it 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" (2183).
Yeah, okay. Thing is, if everyone in this story has flaws, why is Oroonoko so highly praised? According to the narrator, the man has "real greatness of soul", "refined notions of true honor", "absolute genorosity", and "softness that was capable of the highest passions of love and gallantry" (2186). I understand trying to sell something, or in this case, someone, but holy cow. This narrator practically worships the guy. Maybe I'm being super cynical, but this seems a little suspicious.
Regardless of the narrator's praise of Oroonoko, I do feel a little sorry for him. I'd be pretty ticked if my grandparent decided that they liked the person I loved and stole them away from me, even though they have plenty of other lovers already. It's just greedy, not matter how beautiful and kind and modest Imoinda is.
I still feel a little unclear on this, but it sounds an awful lot like the King sends Imoinda a veil which basically stakes his claim on her. She can't refuse, and Oroonoko can't do anything about it either. So the King wins. Great...except for the fact that the King does this simply because this girl sends his heart a-flutter, and "the obedience the people pay their king was not at all inferior to what they paid their gods; and what love would not oblige Imoinda to do, duty would compel her to" (2189). So his thought process is he's gotta have her, even if she doesn't love him. I'll stop there. Creepy old dudes who try to force themselves on younger women make me twitch.
My last thing that I find really interesting is the fact that if you're not looking closely enough, the first part of this reading is a pretty sweet Romeo and Juliet-ish love story. But we don't just see our "Romeo and Juliet". We get to see a lot of different people. No matter what happens by the end, I know one thing. I'm intrigued by this story a lot. As an added bonus, it's beautifully written. And I see sentence structure I recognize again. That's a good place to start.
There is something about rose colored glasses. I imagine they are all pink and you see flowers through them. They are pixilated like you are watching a 3D movie. I don’t know what I know about hippies, but it sounds like proper is the way to go. I know more than I want to know about obscurity that seems so fashionable to some to think of far off or far out things. Anyone can far off if they want to be. The whole fact of the matter is that there is this love story that has been written by a woman during the seventies and the hippies high time. She really has written a love story, a love story that is not far from reality either. It is accurate because it is about young love. It is about real young love. It is the kind of young love that rides its horse into the sunset. This man is named Fabio, and he has long blonde hair. It is the typical raunchy plot. To me it sounds like sexual innuendo that suggest power. All this power is written in as if this woman is giving power to this exotic people. She writes about the size and color of his lips. She writes about his muscles. She writes about all the wounds that he has suffered. There is awesome power in this sexuality which is often written into modern romance novels. It is one of the enticements praised in modern romance novels
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