As we all know there is a direct relationship between Oroonoko and the king which is that the king is his grandfather. The King has already lost all of his sons in battle and as soon as Oroonoko was of age he gave him a bow and trained him to be an expert by the age of seventeen years old. Once the general dies for Oroonoko in battle by standing in front of an arrow for him Oroonoko delivers the news to the General’s daughter Imoinda who comes off as absolutely beautiful. Oroonoko grows fond of her and they fall madly in love. This is where its gets interesting to me. Once the king (Oroonoko’s grandfather) recognizes Imoinda he immediately wants her. It is important to know at this time that it was not wrong for kings to have multiple wives in their chambers. Even though it does not say this directly in the text we could infer that this would make it easier for Imoinda to keep “arm’s length” away from the king so she could somehow be with Oroonoko. Once the king finds out that his grandson went behind his back to have a relationship with Imoinda he is not too happy, but at the same time he knows me must go about this subtly since he does not want to lose his Grandson or in other words such an expert warrior and their new general. So what the king does is tell Oroonoko that she has died and that he is very sorry for his loss when in facts the king actually sold her into slavery. Why does the king lie? Well the king knows to lie because first of all it is much more honorable than to die than to be sold in slavery and secondly the king knew if he found out the truth he would go on a search for her and never return. This part of the story for me was perplexing because there are a decent amount of times where the text goes beyond the literal interpretation, but for the most part I have a hard time picking up on it. In this story I was excited to be able to pick up the scandalous efforts of the king on his grandson Oroonoko. Oroonoko does not know what to do since he truly did love her. Next Oroonoko gets tricked into getting on the British ship where he is next sold into slavery where we eventually meet Trefry. I feel that Trefry is a huge character because even though he does own Oroonoko as a slave he does not ever treat him like a slave. He treats him like a friend since he can tell by his intelligence and distinct look that he is much different. He spoke two languages and was described as a roman face with perfect teeth and royalty like perfection. Now what I do not know is whether Trefry really liked him as a friend or if he likes showing off the fact that he had a smart slave that was one royalty. In the story it just seems like he likes him as a friend but if we dip into history we know that this would be extremely unlikely to happen. It is also important to know that even though this story may have come from facts it is for the most part fiction. 

#royalslave #deception