You generally can’t trace an entire literary genre to one work by one writer. The Gothic, however, is the exception to this rule: the genre traces directly to Horace Walpole’s singular novel The Castle of Otranto, first published anonymously in 1764. Haunted castles, stalking monsters, sexual deviance, repressed pasts, sublime terror: these and other conventions associated with Gothic horror are all present in Walpole’s novel. The Castle of Otranto can also be contextualized as a reaction to the kind of realistic novels we have read so far. Walpole himself wrote that he intended to “blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern.” By “ancient,” Walpole is referring to the medieval romance tradition; by “modern,” he is referencing then-contemporary realist novels like those of Samuel Richardson, which allowed no supernatural elements. However, despite its setting of a “superstitious” Gothic past, Walpole still imports elements of realism into the novel: for example, he first presented The Castle of Otranto anonymously as if it were a found work that was merely translated. Thus, Walpole attempts to give this “supernatural” tale an air of historical verisimilitude (meaning, giving off the impression that this tale could actually exist in the real world).

[Side note—I’ve actually published an essay on the use of “pseudo-translation” in early Gothic novels, including Otranto. It’s rude to assign yourself, right? But I can send it to you if you’re interested.]

As a form, the Gothic has a preoccupation with “otherness”: that is, “monsters” who threaten the community, whether from inside or outside. It’s no wonder, then, that the Gothic emerges in the 18th century: a time of almost constant war with Catholic nations (especially France) and imperial expansion. The historian Linda Colley famously argued that the idea of Great Britain as a national identity was forged in opposition to the “otherness” of Catholic France and the peoples of a rapidly expanding empire. Thus, it’s no surprise that early Gothic novels featured exactly these “Others.” Very often, as in Otranto and the novels of Ann Radcliffe (the most famous Gothic writer of her day), the “dark ages” of the European continent (especially Italy) provided the time and place, conjuring images of a Catholic Other. Other times, as in William Beckford’s Vathek, we find an “Eastern” Other linked to “Orientalist” knowledges tied to the colonial project. (Beckford himself was no innocent bystander here: as a child, he inherited an estate of Jamaican sugar plantations that ran on the labor of enslaved Africans. Beckford was known in his time as one of England’s richest “commoners,” but that slavery constituted the source of his wealth was hardly ever acknowledged.)

Counterintuitively, then, while the Gothic is associated with all kinds of dangerous transgressions, it can also be one of the most conservative of genres: as, in the end, the Gothic often reaffirms the existing social order against these transgressive Others. For this reason, many aspects of the Gothic—the “medieval” over the “modern,” passion over reason, vastness over proportion, obscurity over clarity—would become associated with a conservative reaction to Enlightenment revolutions. It’s no surprise that Romanticism finds many precursors in Gothic conventions and that an early Romantic poet like Charlotte Smith also wrote Gothic novels.

Toward the close of the eighteenth century, the Gothic became associated in particular with women readers and writers. Ann Radcliffe, in particular, was perhaps not only the most widely read Gothic novelist of the time, but arguably the most widely read novelist period. As the Norton Anthology’s introduction to the genre states: “By the 1790s, novels trading on horror, mystery, and faraway settings flooded the book market. It is noteworthy that the best-selling author of the terror school (Ann Radcliffe), the author of its most enduring novel (Mary Shelley), and the author of its most effective send-up (Jane Austen) were all women. Indeed, many of Radcliffe’s numerous imitators (and, on occasion, downright plagiarizers) published under the auspices of the Minerva Press, a business whose very name (that of the goddess of wisdom) acknowledged the centrality of female authors and readers to this new lucrative trend in the book market” (577). The Gothic was thus enabled by the emergence of a middle class reading public, in particular women.

Despite being associated with these kinds of eighteenth-century historical specificities, the Gothic remains one of the most popular genres. For the asynchronous activity, write a couple paragraphs exploring why you think this is. Even though the Gothic is preoccupied with “terrifying” depictions of the past, what is it about Gothic images that also remains so contemporary? What are some contemporary media—TV shows, film franchises, books, video games, and so on—that you would call “Gothic”?

Lili Whalen 

Professor Micheal Rumore

English Literature II Restoration through Revelations 

Reading Communities Blog

April 14, 2020

                                                            Through Thick and Thin

            Growing up in Catholic household from parents who both grew up in the Bronx and then raising two kids in Sleepy Hollow, New York, in a Catholic household taught my sister and I to be obedient and to respect each other, and how important family is. When taking the course, British Literature II: Restoration Through Revolutions at Lehman College, I was introduced to varieties of works of literature with characters being taking advantage of in the eighteenth century when they obey their superiors and being betrayed by their own family. In Aphra Behn’s novel, Oroonoko or, The Royal Slave, which was published in 1688, displays that the royal family of the European coastal fort, previously known as Coramantien, will deceive each other in order to get what they want.

            Once the king, who is Oroonoko’s grandfather, tried to pursue Oroonoko’s lover, Imoinda, takes a disastrous turn when the king finds out that she is not a virgin. The fact that she  was intimate with Oroonoko and is in love with him makes the king jealous. The king gets his revenge on both Oroonoko and Imoinda by selling them as slaves. Behn states, “He ought to have had so much value and consideration for a maid of her quality as to have nobly put her to death, and not to have sold her like a common slave; the greatest revenge, and the most disgraceful of any” (Manifold). The king thinks that death is not enough of a punishment, so he sells her as a slave. In order for the king to make the penalty even more ruthless, he lets his own grandson believe that the love of his life was killed. However, the king lets Oroonnoko believe he had killed Imoinda in order for Orooonoko to suffer. 

            When I first read this novel, I was in shock because where I come from, family is supposed to be a steppingstone and a support system, not hurting our loved ones. I was appalled that a grandfather, who had many mistresses and wives, would try to pursue his grandson’s lover. My parents have taught me to be grateful for what I have and to not take anything for granted. The fact that the king who owns a lot of possessions and comes from lots of wealth, will do anything in his power to make sure his loved ones undergo great pain, displays how miserable he is. 

            In my family and community, we scold upon grandfathers or fathers who would try to pursue a relationship with their children’s lover. My mom and I watch a lot of soap operas, including General Hospital and Young and the Restless. On these shows, a lot of families are killing each other in order to get revenge since they are having an affair with their lover. I love watching these kinds of shows because it so different from the kind environment that I grew up in. My family and  I believe that communication, trust, love, and being there for one another is key to a strong bond with family. We also believe that revenge is petty and would never do anything drastic in order to get revenge on one another. It is a shame that Oroonoko’s grandfather could not look past his jealousy and would sell his own grandson and lover as slaves. 

            Different from his grandfather, Oroonoko saves a pregnant Imoinda from raising their unborn child in slavery when he stabs her to death and then stabs himself using the same knife. Behn writes, Behn writes, “Caesar with his arm’d Hand, met him so fairly, as stuck him to the heart, and he fell dead on his feet” (Manifold). Although it is against my Catholic religion to harm ourselves, as well as our loved ones, Oroonoko was doing what he thought was best for his family, just like my parents have saved my sister and I by teaching us that family is what is most important in life.

                                                            Works Cited

Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave. Manifold, January 2007. 

Reading Community Blog

Growing up in NYC all I saw was injustices against blacks and minorities. Being a minority and growing up in the South Bronx a lot of stereotypes are placed on you. You must be poor, a thief, rapist, killer or a good for nothing. Even are so called President sees us as worthless. But I am neither of these things. Nor are about 95% of my community. We are all out here working hard to make a name for ourselves. And finding meaning in our struggles because to survive is to find meaning in the struggle. By doing this you will find your way out of the struggle and gain your strength to overcome it. While reading Phillis Wheatley’s poems of her struggle as a slave, she shows the true definition of strength and embracing her struggle. She connects her struggles to her religion and faith in the Almighty God. In the poem “On being brought from Africa to America” Wheatley incorporates her religious beliefs into her struggle when she describes her transition from Africa to America.  She describes the battle of slavery and the evilness of it while still remaining holy to her beliefs of Christianity. In the poem, Wheatley uses Christianity to shed light on racial inequality that she experiences firsthand, aiming to break down notions about race.

Throughout the poem she references religion while discussing her struggle with slavery or the speaker I should say. From the very beginning of the poem she shows the speaker’s religion and the importance it has in their life. 

‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand (1-2)

The poem goes right into the holiness with we got mercy Pagan and soul. The speaker says that it was mercy that was responsible for her conversion from being a pagan. She’s had a spiritual experience, we could say, and this change in her life has a particularly religious bent to it, because it came through her conversion to Christianity. The physical change from Africa to America and the spiritual change from pagan to believer parallel each other nicely as well, so that speaker can talk about race and religion at the same time.

The speaker continues to show her transition with Christianity when she says

That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew (3-4)

I like these lines because they emphasize the high power that she is praising her savior “our savior” of the world. The significance for the speaker in this poem is that she’s been changed, and this change has opened her eyes to new truths about her life. Just like she changed from living in Africa to America, she changed from someone who never knew about redemption to someone who now believes in a saving God. This religious experience is vital to her new faith and intertwines her identity as a black woman with her identity as a Christian. And it’s that intertwining that the poem so expertly handles to express the speaker’s feelings about equality and faith. With her belief in her Savior and the higher power she can now overcome the injustice she is going through due to her race, sex and hell of slavery.

Remember Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,

May be refined and join the angelic train. (7-8)

The lines can be read both as an address to white Christians to remember that blacks can be “refined,” but it’s also punctuated in a way that sounds like “Negroes” are the “Christians” she’s talking about, and that since she was converted and believes in redemption, other slaves can be converted, too. Her subtlety in meaning and emphasis on religion becomes a gateway for her statement against racism: if she can be converted and saved like any other Christian, then every other slave should be equal on Earth as well.

Her faith and Christianity beliefs got her through all her obstacles in life. In some ways she made seem as if her struggles were needed for her to grow and embrace her Savior. if she could overcome racism and slavery then everyone could.

Reading Communities Blog

I have often found Romantic poetry particularly difficult to connect to in the past. The tone that comes from, as Wordsworth writes, the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” can seem grandiose and exaggerated. Though Charlotte Smith’s sonnet “The Sea View” is dramatic and emotionally intense, I could agree with the message that Smith was presenting. Smith opens the poem with fanciful images of a shepherd sitting back on a sublime seascape. Smith depicts a bloody scene in which “the mangled dead/ and dying victims then pollute” the waters (12-13), emphasizing the brutality of war. Smith criticizes the ways in which people have created destruction of humanity and environment in the juxtaposition of the serenity and violence. 

As the daughter of Polish immigrants, I have been raised with the stories of great- aunts and uncles who had fought on the front lines of WWII or had been imprisoned in concentration camps. These stories are haunting and have always stayed with me. Last year on my trip to Poland, my brother took me to visit my father’s hometown, which today has a population of about 50. Throughout the small village, my brother pointed out the buildings that were destroyed during the war that are still up to this day as my father had done with him when he was younger. The bleak structures against the expansive green fields were striking. The stark contrast that Smith paints in the sonnet reminded me of this scene. Though what I saw was over 70 years after the war and nowhere near as brutal as the scene in the poem, the result of what man can do in war was clear. 

The poem also seems to aim to instill a sense of fear in the reader through the alliterative language and hellish imagery. The repetition the f and d bring more attention to the lines referring to fire and death. This fear exists around the world to varying extents. New York is sometimes labelled (or is actually) a target of some sort of attack and areas are often guarded with suited and armed officers. The U.S. as a whole is often involved in some sort of military action that is, to some extent, met with opposition and criticism. 

On a different note, as a student in NYC at this given moment, reading any literature with plague in the text recently has brought me to the current pandemic. Though the term, of course, does not describe our circumstances, reading it does remind me of the coronavirus for a fleeting moment, one that I had while reading. Though we are not at war in the city, the unprecedented pandemic has turned a lot of our worlds upside down even aside from social distancing. Thousands have died due to the virus in this city alone. As someone with family members who have been infected in both New York and Poland, the world has felt chaotic, a theme in Smith’s sonnet. 

Charlotte Smith’s “The Sea View” displays common tropes of Romantic poetry. For example, the depiction of nature as beautiful and serene in the first half of the poem is a common Romantic theme. Smith paints a picture of a shepherd lying on a grassy mountain where the “summer sun in purple radiance glow/ blaze on the western water” (5-6) and the overall feeling is “magnificent and tranquil” (7). Smith also creates this sense with the personification of the “bright sea-line mingling with the skies” (3). The land is undisturbed, as is the shepherd taking it all in. Nature is working together to form a source of happiness, a classic of Romanticism. 

Smith dramatically changes the tone at the turn of the sonnet in line 9, using darker and negative language in a critique of war. Smith compares warships sailing to battle to “dark plague-spots” (9) spawned by demons and describe them as “fierce and red/ flash their destructive fires” (11-12). The repetition of the f sound in fierce, flash and fire stresses the detrimental effects of war and brings an intimidating tone. The juxtaposition from pure serenity to a demonic plague of war emphasizes stark transition between what nature can be vs. what it has become.

As an immigrant to the United States, from a young age, being part of the minority became significant in the world I grew up in. The language barrier was that which hit me the most, followed closely by physical appearance. Being from Ecuador, I was small, tan skin, with dark eyes and hair. Nothing like the dominant group that was your typical light hair, light eyes, light skin individuals. The Americans. I did not have a status with power, I was with no rights. I was never personally subjected to discrimination or ill treatment because of what I was, but regardless the feeling of inferiority was all around. If I place myself in the picture, which I have failed to do, and look at Equiano’s experience, it becomes easier to embrace and understand his individual idea of freedom as a form of survival.

In the text, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano himself, one element that I failed to understand, but continued to judge, was the tone of Equiano towards the English. As I read his work, I couldn’t help but shake my head over and over again as Equiano made his enslavement out to be like an adventure. If his work would have been used to introduce me, a non-American, to the history of slavery, then I would have thought that slavery was not as bad as history made it out to be. As if the tone of the story was not misleading enough, I was flabbergasted when even within his African culture slavery were present. Of course he makes the distinction that his slaves are criminals or prisoners of war, but was Equiano not a prisoner to the English? The difference is the treatment of course, but both were prisoner and both had to surrender their individual freedom. They both answered to a figure of authority. To me, that was ironic.

Equiano remarks, “Those prisoners which were not sold or redeemed we kept as slaves: but how different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! With us they do no more work than other members of the community, even their masters…Some of these slaves have even slaves under them as their own property, and for their own use (ch.1)”. Here, he definitely, emphasizes on how different he treats slaves in comparison to slavery done by the participants in the West Indies slave trade. In his home, slavery is good, perhaps even a kind act towards prisoners. The English had many tropes in regards to Africans, some in which they saw them as uncivilized cannibals. I couldn’t help but think if the English thought they were being “kind” when taking Africans away from such primitive world and introducing them to the wonders of the modern. Reading Equiano’s voyage as an enslaved, that is exactly what he expressed. As if the wonders of the modern world make up for enslavement as a whole just because he found it fascinating.

While he almost brags about how his culture treats “slaves”, he rebukes other’s form of slavery. He says, “Such a tendency has the slave-trade to debauch men’s minds, and harden them to every feeling of humanity…it is the fatality of this mistaken avarice, that it corrupts the milk of human kindness and turns it into gall…Surely this traffic cannot be good, which spreads like a pestilence, and taints what it touches! which violates that first natural right of mankind, equality and independency… For it raises the owner to a state as far above man as it depresses the slave below it (Ch.5).” Here, slavery is definitely bad and immoral. In my eyes both are forms of slavery, one more severe than the other, but both nonetheless deprive absolute freedom. In the West Indies, there might have been cases were the enslaver might not have been as brutal to the enslaved, perhaps they showed kindness, but still the enslaved remained enslaved, no matter the treatment there was no equality, no freedom.

Equiano was definitely kind towards the English in his text. And while I did judge him for it, especially because once freed he participate in a society that upheld slave trade, as an immigrant I somewhat understand it. As someone who came from the outside, he was exposed to the emergence of race, the awareness of blackness, of modern clashing with premodern, among other things. When confronting these things my instinctive response is to fit it, to assimilate, which is what he perhaps did when he started dressing like the English, and reading and writing, embracing Christianity, or even working. Except his tools to assimilate happened to depend on the slave trade. Above all, his assimilation was for a grand purpose, and that was to write this abolitionist “slave” narrative. Equiano’s idea of freedom, short-term, was that of individual freedom. But only, by gaining his individual freedom, could he become a sort of ambassador for enslavement, and thus for the long-run, pursue or encourage the collective idea of freedom.

Jacqueline Aramboles

Professor Rumore

ENG 302

April 8, 2020

I was born and grew up in New York City, but my mother was raised in the Dominican Republic and brought over much of the customs to NYC with her. One of those customs is the expectation that girls are to be treated far differently than boys. I grew up in a single parent household, and my mother always expected more of me and my sister than she demanded of my brother. It is expected that women/girls do what we are told to do, much like Imoinda in Aphra Behn’s novel Oroonoko.

             Imonida was considered to be the most beautiful woman in Cormantien. However, when she refused to become the king’s concubine, he had her exiled and turned into a slave. The king’s goal was to demean Imondia’s grace and beauty because she denied the King his desire for her. The King wanted to have Imondia killed  but instead wanted to make her suffer more for disobeying him: “He therefore removes her from the Otan, with Onahal, whom he put into safe hands, with order they should be both sold off as slaves to another country, either Christian, or heathen, it was no matter where” (Behn 31). Women are taught to be submissive to men and when they are not, they can at times be treated harshly like Imonida was by the King. Imonida was treated harshly for not wanting to become another man’s concubine. She was married and in love with her husband Oroonoko.

The burden of carrying out chores, such as cleaning, washing the dishes, and remaining in the house at all times were laid upon my younger sister and myself. Whereas my brother was given more liberty to leave the house when he wanted, visit with his friends and had little responsibility when it came to the household chores. Although at the time all I thought was how unfair it was that he got away with a lot more than us girls did. As an adult the term sexism comes to mind when thinking about my situation growing up and how unfairly Imondia was treated. In some cultures, men and women are different and are made to function differently.  These differences in Latin households are made apparent immediately. For example, in my home my sister and I were always being taught by mother how a “perfect” household should function, while my brother was watching television and playing video games because he is a boy. Men/ boys are taught that it is acceptable to have the woman/girl do what they ask at all times without any complaints from them. In Oroonoko, the King expressed his male- dominance when he was denied by Imondia. He immediately wanted to get rid of her because she was in love with her husband and did not surrender to the Kings desires.

Ultimately, women and girls are treated very differently from men/boys in the Latin community. Women should be more appreciated for all that we do and put up with. I am very thankful women are not treated as unfairly as Imonida was, well at least in New York City.

Isela Larreinaga

English 302

Professor Rumore

7 April 2020

Blog Post

When reading the first two books and some short stories given to us, I really had to think about the connections it brings to NYC and especially myself. Although I don’t believe there’s a concrete relationship between these stories and myself, I do believe there’s more of a connection to those around me and my community. Most of the narratives that we’ve read speaks on the idea of race, colonialism, and much more. 

I want to speak on the narrative of Oladuah Equiano and how it made me realize the contradictions that arise in today’s age. For instance, I remember reading the section where Equiano mentions how afraid he was of the colonizers and how barbaric they acted towards people who were different shades of skin tone. It was till that passage specifically where I began to feel a toll of emotional weight. For years, and I mean YEARS, people of color have been targeted and ridiculed.They are mentioned to be the barbaric and cruel ones, they have no remorse and lack judgment. People especially within my community have been criticized for false judgment and ideas. People of color are perceived to be the complete opposite of what they are, making it much difficult to trust anyone. As a student in NYC and just a New Yorker in general I can understand why we act a certain way. There’s a level of mistrust in the air and it’s 100 percent reasonable as to why. Like Oroonoko, he was fooled and tricked into slavery, not ever trusting a man’s word again. I know that people of color have suffered tremendously and it shows within my community and when I’m in a classroom. I can feel the tension when the subject of race and slavery come up and it makes complete sense as to why. 

It’s clear to me that reading these narratives proves the point that some people still think like this, i.e., people of color having more attractive, European-like features are to be favored as was Oroonoko. It’s sometimes difficult to navigate texts like these because it’s still something that’s being dealt with till this day. Of course, we don’t have slavery but doesn’t mean there isn’t a modern day version of it. By this I mean the incarceration of black men and boys with minor offenses or not at all. The system doesn’t often work in their favor, making them vulnerable to society and it’s something we see often in NYC. Many young boys of color are often thrown onto the streets for various reasons but one being the fact that they’re not given the chance to succeed. Which in return creates a pathway to the jail system and to me, that’s the modern version of being enslaved. 

Living in a diverse community in New York proves to be effective because you get to witness the different perspectives and what the past means for us and others. Oroonoko and Equiano helps to further develop our beliefs on certain ideas. 

Today we’re going to consider some early Romantic poetry. While you will study (or have studied) the Romantic movement in more depth in English Lit III, it does also cut across our timeframe to 1815. In any case, I think the period looks slightly different looking “backward” at the long-eighteenth century than it does looking “forward” to modernism.

What became known as Romanticism both grew out of and rejected aspects of the Enlightenment ideals of the so-called Age of Revolutions. In previous classes we discussed how Equiano’s narrative reflects some of the rhetoric associated with Enlightenment thought: for example, his focus on individual freedom, self-determination, and industriousness. Enlightenment thought is also associated with appeals to “reason” over “passion.” This appeal to reason was especially important to Enlightenment political philosophy, which justified democratic government by arguing for the essential capacity of human beings to know their own interests and rule themselves. (On the flip side, Enlightenment thought often denied this capacity to reason to racialized “Others,” and thus provided “modern” justifications for colonialism and racism.)

Though early Romantics found inspiration from the revolutionary fervor of the period, they rejected the Enlightenment esteem of “reason” over “passion.” In the 1802 Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, often taken as the poetic manifesto of Romanticism, William Wordsworth famously described Romantic poetry as the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Indeed, many of the stereotypes we still have about what “poets” are like derive from Romanticism. Any time you picture a poet as a broody, eccentric individual who goes off in isolation to write withering poems about nature, these are basically exaggerated versions of Romantic ideals.

While the work of William Wordsworth and, in particular, Lyrical Ballads (written in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and first published in 1798) is often portrayed as the point at which Romanticism arrives as a movement, I also want to highlight the sometimes unacknowledged precursors to Lyrical Ballads. Many of these works were historically elided because they came in supposedly “non-literary” forms written, in particular, by women writers. One such writer was Charlotte Smith, a Gothic novelist (another popular proto-Romantic genre we will focus on in more depth in a few weeks) and lyric poet. Indeed, many of the features of Romantic poetry attributed to Wordsworth can be found in Smith’s 1784 Elegaic Sonnets, which predates Lyrical Ballads by nearly fifteen years. Indeed, sonnets like “On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic” and “The Sea View” can be taken as typically representative of Romanticism in general. The question we’ll consider together is how.

If you’re not able to make our Blackboard Collaborate discussion, you can consider this question asynchronously. Choose one of the two poems by Charlotte Smith mentioned above and read it closely. What kinds of literary devices do you see in your reading? How is the poem expressive of Romantic ideas, values, and/or aesthetics? Post a 1-2 paragraph-length response to these questions here on this blog.

Dashawn Britt 

Reading communities

At first, I wasn’t sure how to attack this assignment for two reasons. The main reason, I was not sure how I related to anything in the eighteenth century. I recently looked at the eighteenth century in depth through this course, so I am not well versed in this period of time. The other reason is because at first, I didn’t find the eighteenth century interesting. But I must admit, I am wrong. The eighteenth century is interesting, and I found two ways I can relate to this century.

Living in NYC allowed me to look at this assignment in two ways. The first way I would like to connect this course to the communities I identify with is the way white people view African Americans or people of color. Often, I hear white people and even people of a light skin tone say things like “Your handsome for a black guy” or “She’s a cute black girl.” These comments can make anyone feel uncomfortable because its like dark people aren’t a delight to look at unless they look a certain way. They may also say things that insinuate that the texture of one’s hair or facial features which may be similar to those of European descent. In Oroonoko a text written by Aphra Behn there were times Oroonoko was compared to someone that was white. Though Oroonoko was an African Prince from Surinam they often described his looks to be immaculate, so immaculate that they were surprised he was African. “His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the negroes.”  I went to plenty of schools where I heard comments about skin completion or bodily features compared to other races just to explain how beautiful or ugly someone was. If you look on social media, we see examples of this every day. Today we still have the race comparisons whether people say someone is acting black or speaking white, these events occurred even in the eighteenth century. I guess its true history does repeats itself. 

Another way I am able to connect with the eighteenth century is through the whole slavery topic. We were given “freedom”, but we are not free. Normally a name proceeds someone but in the real world our race proceeds us at times. When the stop and frisk law was implemented in NYC, it was terrible for people of color. I was the victim of stop and frisk a few times. It was because I either fit the description or if I’m not hiding anything, I shouldn’t have an issue with the officers searching me. The problem was, I did have an issue. My rights were being violated because I was a male of color and I came from a rough area in the Bronx.  People are still racist, and there are people in the world that may still identify with old school prejudice ideologies. Oroonoko was tricked into slavery and had to fight for his freedom. At times it’s as if we have to apply ourselves extra hard compared to our counter parts because the odds are stacked against African Americans in America. Oroonoko fought for what was right and he did everything in his power to be free and free those that didn’t deserve to be enslaved. I looked at his antics as heroic. Oroonoko is fictional but he was a pioneer. One of the pioneers I look up to is Malcolm X. I try to live righteous and live the way Malcolm X lived after he changed his life around. In society if you live like Malcolm X, they see you as violent and aggressive, people don’t see you as a person trying to do what’s right and fighting for the equality of your people. 

To conclude my Reading community’s assignment, I would like to say these comparisons aren’t direct, but they are aligned in a way. Things that happened in the eighteenth-century show similarities to the way we get treated in current times. Honestly a lot has changed but there is still a lot that needs to change because progression is key, and society isn’t always progressive.