Today's class really had me thinking about the ideals that define civilized and savage. Both have normal connotations, civilized seems to always have a "good" feeling when savage always has a "negative" one. Those who are civilized are normally at the top of the pyramid while those who are savage are more like animals just surviving.
The actual definition from the Oxford English Dictionary are as follows:
Civilized: At an advanced stage of social and cultural development, usually marked by the existence of organized communities and an adherence to established conventions of behavior; highly developed; refined and sophisticated in manner or taste; educated, cultured.
Savage: That is in a state of nature, wild
Now, in order to get a feel of who is really savage and civilized in Oroonoko it takes a little thought with those definitions. Of course when I thought of savage, I thought of the African people in the story. They seemed like the most wild and lacked the "ideals" of a civilized nation. But then again, I thought of the Indians. Actually they are those most savage only because they are so obvious to the ideals, morals, corruption, and evil that always seems to come with those civilized. The Indians are indeed ones with nature. They don't sell their people for slaves in hope of gaining benefits in the end. The people don't even have a word for a lie.
As for the Africans, I would then place them to be in second to most savage. Their lifestyle is one that is scary and far from something that would be considered civilized. This leaves the English to be the most civilized. Out of the three, yes, they are most civilized, but I feel some of their actions towards the natives and especially the Africans make them savage bullies. They use their whits and position on the hierarchy to take advantage of all those below them. The Africans only do what they do because they don't know any better nor could they comprehend another lifestyle. The English however do know, yet they still play dirty. On a connotation level, I would put the English and Africans most savage only because the two play so dirty in the slave trade. Even though the natives are so oblivious to outside culture, that lack of knowledge makes them more civilized.
I think it's really interesting that you put the actual definitions on here because as our group was deliberating yesterday, we thought of it more in terms of "good" and "bad." These definitions show that civilized does not necessarily mean good and savage does not necessarily mean bad. The hierarchy changes when you think of it in terms of who is civilized compared to who is "good" or in my opinion, has less crimes against humanity.
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