Oroonoko Lesson Plan

How and why does the narrator create a unique picture of Oroonoko for the reader?

Strong responses will discuss how the narrator makes an effort to describe Oroonoko as if he were European. They should reference such qualities that cover his personality, his education and his physical characteristics. These include things like his tutoring in French, the way she describes his depression as an aristocratic quality, and descriptions of his nose and his mouth and his body. They should also describe the way she makes him out to be superior to both his own people and people of “the most illustrious of courts” of Europe.” They should explain why she does this, and...