In Oroonoko, the main themes carried throughout the story are inequality and slavery. As mentioned in the video, Oroonoko falls in love with Imoinda. However, at the same time, his grandfather, the king, wants to marry Imoinda, too. Even though Oroonoko is the prince, the king is still superior than him. Therefore, Imoinda has no other choice except to obey what the king says. Later on, when the king finds out Imoinda is not a virgin anymore, he decides to sell her into slavery. He then tells Oroonoko that he killed Imoinda since he worries about the military on Oroonoko’s hand. Because of the pain that Oroonoko endures, he decides to go on a military expedition. Oroonoko then meets a sea captain and is sold into slavery. When he reached the colony, he surprisingly meets Imoinda knowing that she is not dead. Although they were not treated poorly by their owner, they still did many things trying to free all the other slaves. Many slaves joined them at first, yet, they betrayed him at the end because they are afraid of the situation that they are in. In the end of the story, he was cut into pieces as a consequence of what he did and as a warning for the other slaves to see. If the king didn’t abuse his power trying to steal his grandson’s lover, Oroonoko may not need to go through this kind of tragedy such as being sold into slavery and cut into pieces apart. If people can stand up earlier to fight against the unfairness they were given, less people might suffer and die. I think the significance of this story is to tell everyone the darkness of slavery and the road to obtain equality is often washed by blood.
A Blogs@Baruch site
