Oroonoko

How does the narrator describe the native people?

Oroonoko

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The native people with whom the Europeans trade, she says, are creative: "we dealt with them with beads of all colors, knives, axes, pins and needles." They wear beaded aprons "as Adam and Eve did the fig leaves." The people, she continues, are beautiful, their skin color a reddish yellow. "They are very modest and shy and despite living practically naked, there is never seen among them any improper or indecent behavior" (3). Of course a man might be attracted to a woman, but he will only touch her with his eyes while his hands remain folded. He sighs with love but never talks to her. The young woman, on the other hand, modestly guards her eyes and keeps them lowered. In short, the narrator reiterates again, the native people are very like the first biblical parents in the Garden of Eden living in "the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin" (3).

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