Week 5 - Representing the New World

Within "Captains and Slaves - Aphra Behn and the Rhetoric of Republicanism" by Warren Chernaik, a lot of good points are raised regarding Behn's actual stance on various important topics to the story of Oroonoko, namely the morality of owning slaves. This topic was particularly interesting to me because it is often overlooked that slave owners felt that they were perfectly valid in doing so under their religion. How could that be true? How could any Christian person feel comfortable owning another human and treating them like animals?
It is often assumed by people in current time that all slave owners and people benefiting from the slave trade had this opinion, but this article expresses that many were against the slave trade, at least in the cases that people are being captured expressly to be made slaves.

While I in no way condone slavery, another part of this article I found interesting was the bit about Locke's opinions on slavery. He, according to "Captains and Slaves - Aphra Behn and the Rhetoric of Republicanism," believed that it was okay to own a slave if they had been acquired through war, but not if they were captured expressly to be sold into slavery. What is most interesting is that he was a colonial administrator who was often dealing with the trading of slaves and plantations, so can one really take his opinion for what it is if he was so involved in the slave trade? Did he simply turn a blind eye to the fact that he was going against his own opinion just for money?

Week 4 - Law & Philosophy

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke, published in 1690, is essentially a short exploration of human knowledge and understanding that Locke wrote and published in his spare time. It was, as the text reveals, simply a way of Locke to record different ideas that he and his friends had while relaxing and discussing different things. The text goes into different ideas such as how people perceive things, ideas being derived by experiences, how words connect to ideas, and the limits of human knowledge.

It is fairly easy to see that many of these ideas being discussed, even if they were not meant to cause any major upheaval in society, sewed the roots of just that. Locke is putting into words the ways in which every single person perceives and learns different things, and that we should always be seeking out new knowledge. Putting the idea in people's minds that each person can think for his or herself and should always be questioning the things around them would do nothing but disrupt the thought process that the monarchy in charge at the time would want people to have. People being curious about their livelihoods, especially in direct response to the actions that their, at the time tyrannical, government is making, would cause them to, more likely than not, be wondering if there is a better way of living they could have, or at least a better government above them. Obviously, this way of thinking contributed greatly in the century following the publishing of this to the American Revolution. Of course, this way of thought is very closely related to the ideals of the Enlightenment period of questioning the world around oneself, including natural phenomena and even religion being the basis for all facts.

Obvious to us, this way of thinking is basically how mostly all research nowadays works. We seek to find answers to the things around us, whether it be through quantifying and qualifying things, or just seeking out what something means to us. How we perceive things and our ability to speak out about our own ideas is a relatively new development in our societies, but has changed the very fabric of our societies and cultures. People no longer have to depend on religion or their government for an explanation for everything.

Week 3 - Religion and Science

Out of the three texts that were assigned to be read for this week, I think that The Pilgrim's Progress and "A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton" continue to be relevant today.

Firstly, and a text that will almost definitely be continuously relevant, is "A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton." This text is still relevant because it is simply Isaac Newton discussing his theories on color and prisms. Our understanding of colors has not been updated much, if at all, since Isaac Newton's theory was published through this letter. Really he is just discussing the idea that light is always white until it is either refracted through a prism or a colored filter is placed in front of the light source. There really is not a lot to talk about with this text. It is what it is, and the theory still holds up today, as most of Newton's theories do.

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, however, is a lot more interesting in how it is still relevant today. The Norton Anthology of English Literature really describes it best by saying, "The Pilgrim's Progress is the most popular allegory in English. Its basic metaphor--life is a journey--is simple and familiar..." (2142). I think this is pretty accurate and literally any person can agree with the sentiment. Life is a journey, and each location in this piece is a metaphor for some aspect of life that each person has to deal with in order to reach their ultimate goal. In the case of the character 'Christian' from the piece, that goal is to reach 'The Celestial City,' which is a stand-in name for heaven.


While the piece most definitely was intended to be digested with its obvious Christian themes, I think it can still be looked at with a contemporary lens where those themes don't necessarily have to be considered. For example, 'The Slough of Despond' can represent the doubts and fears that drag anyone down. It does not have to represent sin or things that keep one from religion. Another example could be that of 'The Vanity Fair.' While in the context of The Pilgrim's Progress it is supposed to be representing all of the temptations in life that cause one to sin, it can still simply represent temptations in life that cause people to lose their way in life, whether it be alcohol, sex, money, etc.

Although the language of The Pilgrim's Progress can be a little bit difficult to digest, especially for a non-English major, I think just about anyone could get something out of it. While the Christian themes are not as relevant in our more secular society, the ideas that each part of the piece represent are still very much relevant because they represent different aspects of the human condition. In that way, it is very possible that The Pilgrim's Progress will continue to be relevant until humans either die off or evolve beyond our current emotions.

Week 2 - Heroic Verse

To understand the difference between satire in the context of John Dryden versus satire today, one must understand exactly what satire is and its importance to literature, politics, and culture. John Dryden is considered to be a very impersonal writer, as he incorporated almost every important aspect of life into his poetry, and his poems usually commemorate specific events that happened during his lifetime.

John Dryden was mainly a playwright, so it is not surprising that he is comfortable using wit and satire in his works. As theater was the contemporary form of entertainment at the time, the audiences were also very familiar with both satire and wit, which greatly contributed to Dryden's popularity. It makes perfect sense that a poem such as "Mac Flecknoe," which satirizes another poet at the time, Shadwell, a self proclaimed successor of Ben Johnson, would be found smart or at the very least entertaining to contemporary audiences of the time.

The way in which Dryden used satire in regards to events happening in his lifetime is most certainly still used today. The only differences are that now more people are educated enough to read and recognize satire, and the events and aspects of everyday life that are being satirized are different. Poetry is also not necessarily the main form in which things are satirized nowadays, as online articles and other forms of digital media are the more favorable outlets.

Perhaps one of the best examples of contemporary satire is the long-running and popular television series, The Simpsons. While it is nowhere near as popular (or clever, in my opinion) as it was about a decade ago, the way in which it comments on popular culture and events is the same. Usually, if there is something particularly unfavorable that an important figure does, or there is an event that happens worth satirizing, the writers will incorporate some aspect of that particular happening into a character who mirrors the figure, or a theme of the episode relating to the event. Sometimes it can even be a simple joke, but the viewer must still be able to recognize that it is satirizing something contemporary. This is definitely similar to Dryden's use of satire because, as previously mentioned, he tried to incorporate every important aspect of life into his poetry.