Subtle Criticism in Oroonoko When reading Oroonoko it might be easy to miss the criticism offered against European culture. However, when studying the novel, this criticism that was presented subtly becomes quite clear. An important note is that the author and the narrator are actually not the same. Although the author wants to provide a critique of European culture and values, she is reluctant to let it pass through the narrator. This criticism comes mostly in less direct forms, through its non-European characters, most often Oroonoko, and through comparisons between cultures and the characters encountered in each. As a writer trying to make a living and as the narrator of the story representing herself, Behn could not ask the narrator to offer too strong a critique for fear of losing her audience. The narrator is presented as very European. She is very ethnocentric and seems to have no problem with the slave trade, only with the treatment of a specific individual (namely Oroonoko). Every now and then, however, there will be a slip, a slight inconsistency in the narrator's character, which offers a glimpse of Behn's true feelings. For example, throughout the novel, the narrator firmly believes in religion. He tells Imoinda "...Stories of nuns and efforts to bring her to the knowledge of the true God."(41). He also tries to defend Christianity from an unbelieving Caesar. When speaking of the natives of Suriname, however, he states that “…all the inventions of man…here would do nothing but destroy that tranquility…and…teach them [the natives] to know the crime. The first thing he includes as "Man's Invention" is religion, which implies that it is not essential... middle of the paper... Banister really kills it like a dog as he said, "he would declare, in the other world, that he was the only man, among all white people, who ever heard the truth."(64) Through each of these forms Behn is highly critical of European values, or perhaps more precisely the lack of He criticizes religion, especially Christianity, for not imposing morality on people; the most noble character in the novel, Oroonoko, does not believe in any God at all. He also criticizes those in the culture who do not keep their promises; natives who are seen as so inferior are truer. It delivers all of this, however, in a way that doesn't offend and thus retains its audience for the next criticism it might offer. Works Cited: Behn, Aphra. "Oroonoko." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. AH Abrams. New York. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc 2000.