![]() ![]() ![]() The narrator spends much time describing Oroonoko’s noble characteristics, and is particularly interested in detailing his exceedingly fine physical beauty, which is a blend of Roman and African traits. The seventeen-year-old Oroonoko becomes the new general, and returns to court an elegant and intelligent young man. One day, during an intense battle, Imoinda’s father takes a fatal arrow in the eye and saves Oroonoko’s life. Oroonoko has grown up away from the court, and has been trained to be a great military leader by Imoinda’s father. Coramantien is a brave and warlike nation that participates in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, selling prisoners of war to Western ships. As the novel’s full title announces, Oroonoko is not just any old slave-he is the last descendant of a royal line, and the prince of an African country called Coramantien (probably modern-day Ghana). Suriname is a British colony at the time the narrative takes place (the 1660s). The narrator claims to have known Oroonoko during his captivity in Suriname, South America. Oroonoko’s tale is told from the perspective of a female narrator, possibly Aphra Behn herself. ![]()
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