I am going to prove that Oroonoko or the Royal Slave can be interpreted more or less as a Greek myth. In order to help you following me, I attach a link to a book LINK(sorry but it is in Spanish) in which the more frequent themes in Greek myths are listed (take a look on page 230).
There are several themes a Greek myth can accomplish, but it is enough with a bunch of them, talking about Oroonoko we find:
1.- Important genealogy: He was born in a royal family.
2.- Monsters as enemies: We can take the tigers that he kills and the electric eel that he fishes as monsters.
3.- Trips: He makes several travels, from Coranmatien to Surinam for example.
4.- Getting rid of a rival: He defeats Jamoan, a leader of an enemy tribe.
5.- Mission: We can say that he has several missions. First, he has to fight against
the enemies of the King. Later on, he searches his liberty and the liberty of his family and mates.
6.- Substitution of parents: Oroonoko’s grandparent takes the role of his father.
7.- Revenge: He takes revenge on Byam who has betrayed him several times.
8.- Special weapons or divine help: They can be human-beings too, so we have Aboan and Onahal who made possible the meeting between Imoinda and Oroonoko in the otan and we also have Imoinda who helped him to fight Byam’s army.
9.- Imprisonment: Slavery is some kind of imprisonment but also remember when he is in the ship with the shackles.
10.- Beauty and strength: All heroes have those two qualities and he has them too.
I like your post and I like the fact that u've tried to find these parallelisms between him and a stereotype of a Greek hero!
ReplyDeletesee you!
I liked your post. It made me think of a book I read some years ago: "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. If you are interested in myth, I'm sure you'll like it.
ReplyDeleteCORRECTIONS:
- help you to follow me
- with regard to Oroonoko, we can find
- but also remember when he is in the ship with the shackles: but also reminds us of the time...
GRADE: 5