Narrative shift in Oroonoko

A detailed Summary of Narrative shift in Oroonoko

A black African is captured and sold into slavery. It's an unfortunate story, but one with approximately eleven million equivalents. Aphra Behn, however, brings this common piece of history to life in her story Oroonoko, the tale of an African prince tricked into slavery in the West Indies. As the storyteller, Behn makes use of two common forms of narration, the third person and the first person. She recounts what she is present for in the first person, while relying on the words of Oroonoko himself to explain what she did not see. The effectiveness of each of these modes of narration can be judged by two standards, the ability to effectively convey action and by the ability to portray emotion. Examining two separate passages of Oroonoko, each depicting Oroonoko in battle, can best illustrate these standards. The first of these passages, from page 2187-88("While he was speaking....wounded him almost to death"), is a third person account of one of Oroonoko's battles, while the second passage, from page 2199-2200("sometimes we would go surprising...strong limbs") is a first person narratative about Oronooko's encounter with a tiger. Though in Oroonoko, both first and third person narration modes are necessary to complete th

The other method of comparison is not to look at the ability to simply portray action, but the ability to portray the emotion of a person. The first passage, written in the third person, lacks in its ability to show the emotion of Oroonoko as he goes into battle. No doubt, his enthusiasm and passion would have been high, but this cannot be fully described by Oroonoko in a way that would be effective when written. Thus, Behn uses the line "and being animated with despair, fought as if he came on purpose to die(2188)" to best capture Oroonoko's emotional state. While they do provide the reader with the exact feelings of the hero, they do so in a very direct and uncreative way.

In contrast with this technique of merely stating the emotion, is the much more effective technique of describing it. Behn accomplishes this in her first person narration of Oroonoko killing the tiger. The best of her emotional description is when Oroonoko fixes "his awful stern eyes full upon those of the beast"(2200). This is very effective because rather than simply explain what he was feeling, Behn describes the look in his face as he fought the tiger. Without explicity stating the emotion, Behn is able to bring the fearlessness of Oroonoko to life because she was actually present to see that look in his eyes. Again, it can be seen by looking at each mode of narration's ability to effectively portray emotion, that the first person mode is superior,

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Approximate Word count = 974
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English