Oroonoko

“[L]ike our first Parents before the Fall, it seems as if they had no Wishes, there being nothing to heighten Curiosity: but all you can see, you see at once, and every Moment see; and where there is no Novelty, there can be no Curiosity”

Here, the narrator compares the indigenous people of Surinam to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Like them, the Surinamese go naked and know no shame. Unlike our “first Parents”, however, there is nothing to stimulate their curiosity—there is no Tree of Knowledge for Eve to eat from—and without curiosity, there can be no change, no innovation, and no civilization.

“They have a native Justice, which knows no Fraud; and they understand no Vice, or Cunning, but when they are taught by the White Men.”

Here again, the Surinamese are represented as innocent and without wickedness. Indeed, it is only through the influence of colonizing White people that these people learn cunning and vice. Thus, the novella seems to question the value of colonialism.

“[H]e was adorn’d with a native Beauty, so transcending all those of his gloomy Race, that he struck an Awe and Reverence, even into those that knew not his Quality”

This is one of the first descriptions of Oroonoko, one which emphasizes his physical beauty and implies that this is but an outward manifestation of his “quality” or character.