There are various things that make up a piece of literature. For example: choice of diction, modes of discourse, and figurative language. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano were great examples of authors that used these elements of literature. There are similarities and differences in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and From Africa to America. Though Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano shared similarities in experiences, they had different writing personalities, purposes, attitudes, tones, and relations with their communities. There are four main modes of discourse: expository, narrative, descriptive, and persuasive. In Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary …show more content…
It is apparent that Mary Rowlandson is more extrovert than Olaudah Equiano. Rowlandson communicated with the people she was surrounded by. Olaudah Equiano showed that he was more introvert than Mary Rowlandson because he did not attempt to have any sort of conversation with another being. He only spoke of what he saw going on in the lives of the people around him in his story, and there was no dialogue. Mary Rowlandson’s personality was more apparent than Olaudah Equiano’s because she showed that she was a caring woman. She did not want to leave her child behind, even though it was already dead. Mary was also caring and loving because she took the time to go through bible scriptures and Psalms with another woman to give her the hope and guidance she needed from their Lord. Following the Lord was one of Mary’s main purposes in life.
Mary Rowlandson used the rhetoric device appeal to authority in her literature. She spoke of God as if He were somehow relevant to every aspect of her life, whereas Equiano mainly used appeal to emotion in his work. Olaudah spoke of the slavery and apprehensions on the slave ship and in the new world. “..Much dread and trembling among us and nothing but bitter cries to be heard all the night..” (74) There was also figurative language used in Mrs. Rowlandson’s excerpt. “My sweet babe like a lamb.” (2) Mary might have compared her child to a lamb in order to describe her
When comparing Mary Rowlandson with Jonathan Edwards they both have an understanding of who Jesus Christ is, but differ on their views on how to live their earthly lives. I would have to say that Rowlandson faith showed a raw and relevant relationship with God. While she was being held in captivity by the American Indians, she was able to find comfort in her faith, Mary is able to pull memorized verses from out from her head to bring her peace, which to me showed that she knows and understands the Bible and God. She was also given a Bible from one of the Indians, which helped her tremendously as she experienced a terrifying part of her life. On page 53, the last page of Mary’s bibliography happened to be my favorite part of her journey.
Even with the nightmares happening around her, Rowlandson is able to avoid the horrific fates others undergo by staying focused on her religion and God’s work. She describes an encounter with a fellow captive, saying that one poor woman “came to a sad end, as some of the company told me in my travel: She having much grief upon her Spirit, about her miserable condition, being so near her time, she would be often asking the Indians to let her go home” (77). Ultimately, the Indians, being annoyed by her constant begging and pleas, decide to burn both this woman and her small child alive. However, unlike that unlucky woman, Rowlandson survives because, instead of pleading to her captors, she takes her pleas to God and turns toward her religion, which keeps her mind healthy and positive throughout her tribulations. She is mentally tough due to her focus on positive religious messages, making her able to handle her situation well and ultimately leading to her survival.
There are four main modes of discourse: expository, narrative, descriptive, and persuasive. In Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs.
During that time, it was considered improper for a woman to express her feelings like anger or dislike. She says, "I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes" (pg278), and the narrator blamed it on her mental condition rather than saying that she was actually tired of her husband's way of treating her illness. She felt secluded, useless and trapped. Yet, she still had to follow and accept that kind of social rule. Women were expected to be good in doing the house chores and taking care children. In the story, the narrator mentions about John's sister who was a perfect housekeeper and hoped for no better profession. There is also Mary who was so good with the Baby. The author was actually trying to send images to the readers that it was expected attitudes in her society and was part of their culture which women were forced to follow.
Title: Compare-Contrast Essay In twenty first century communication is very important aspect to humans. People have to talk the way listeners like. When there is male and female working together, there always occurs a problem of communication. Men like to talk about one topic whereas women like to talk about different topic. This problem commonly occurs in newlyweds. The husband thinks that his wife is so over caring, on the other hand the wife thinks that her husband is not emotional. This problem occurs because both men and women have different types of talking styles, different ways of thinking, and different point of views. I am reading two articles based on this problem. One of them is “His Talk, Her Talk” by Joyce
Rowlandson writes of the sovereignty and goodness of God in “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson.” She begins by explaining her diary accounts of the catastrophic events that took place the day of her capture as well as the agonizing moments proceeding. “It was a solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their own blood, some here and some there, like a company of sheep torn by wolves” (Rowlandson 270). Rowlandson utilized these words in the opening segment of her account when she portrays the turmoil and devastation of the Indian assault at Lancaster. In the opening line, she describes the immense gravity and seriousness of the circumstance followed by a simile involving Christian imagery and symbolism. The embodiment of God is traditionally portrayed as a shepherd, guiding the innocent sheep through the pastures of his sovereignty. Furthermore, she begins contrasting the Native Americans to savage wolves, the epitome of evil within
The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson reveals that the ghastly depiction of the Indian religion (or what Rowlandson perceives as a lack of religion) in the narrative is directly related to the ideologies of her Puritan upbringing. Furthermore, Rowlandson's experiences in captivity and encounter with the new, or "Other" religion of the Indians cause her rethink, and question her past; her experiences do not however cause her to redirect her life or change her ideals in any way.
What made this piece of writing so popular with England and America was the great narrative skills that Mary Rowlandson possessed. Throughout the narrative, it could be observed that Rowlandson 's suppression of rage, depression, and understanding change through her journey. Before the invasion on Lancaster and Rowlandson 's captivity, Mary Rowlandson was a harmless housewife who knew absolutely nothing about
Gods Providence In Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, she goes into detail about her capture and then her later gained freedom. As she tells her story she explains her feelings towards the Metacomet people and the trials and tribulations she went through. She speaks with much confidence in God through it all and we get to see through her, the thought process of a puritan women of that time. Rowlandson will often times quote the Bible and makes regular mention of Bible stories, which highlights her complete faith in God and makes it clear to the reader that that is the most important thing in her life.
The Pressure to Assimilate in Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson was born in a Puritan society. Her way of was that of an orthodox Puritan which was to be very religious and see all situations are made possible by God. She begins her writing by retelling a brutal description of the attack on Lancaster by the Natives. Rowlandson spends enough time interacting with the Natives to realize these people live normal, secular lives. She had the opportunity work for a profit which was not accepted when she lived as devout Puritan women in Puritan colony. Mary Rowlandson knows that she must expose the good nature of the Natives and she must rationalize her “boldness” through quoting the Bible.
Throughout Mary Rowlandson's account of being captured by Native Americans, she mentions her family frequently; however, she hardly mentions them by name or talks about what they were like. This immediately creates a feeling of distance in the reader's mind, because it could suggest many things about what her family was like before they got separated. She also shows us what looks to be a great deal of distance between her and her youngest daughter Sarah who died in her arms. When Rowlandson first mentions her youngest daughter she calls her a "poor wounded babe" (130) which suggests that there is a distance between the two. However, this may not be the way that the events actually happened because she wrote the narrative six years after she was reunited with her family. This opens up the idea that this may also have been a way for her to cope with losing a child in her arms. It could also show that she may have not been the only person to write the narrative. These two ideas work together because if Rowlandson does not have to write all of the painful parts, she would not have had to relive the guilt or sorrow. Mary Rowlandson makes the reader think she is distant from her family because she uses it as a way to cope with the pain of being separated from them, and to show the Puritans that being close to god will help you with any pain.
A very important question we must ask when faced with a new read is how did their life experience affect their purpose and style? It is very important to understand where and when the writer came from to understand why they are writing what they’re writing and how they’re writing. The writing style from a white male living in the deep south in the 1940’s is going to be different than a black woman living in the north in the same time period. Three main things that are a gigantuous impact on the writer's purpose and style are, things that are happening in their life, things that have already happened in their life, and where and when they come from.
Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative follows the tradition of stories of women from Anglican descents that are seized by Native Americans, a genre that was enormously popular in the US at the turn of the 17th century. A defining work of American literature that presented accounts of Indian barbarity, the gallantry and superiority of white male settlers, and the helplessness of white women in need of protection and rescue. Correspondingly, Madeline Usher, the entombed sister from Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic “The Fall of the House of Usher” is presented as a bawling woman whose identity and voice is unnarratable. Madeline is not only a frightful looking and hysterical woman, but conversely a wailing body from the foundation of the House of Usher whose plight encourages us to deconstruct what else lies beneath the social and cultural foundations on which not merely the house, but the nation itself was built upon. I will use Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of the Captivity and Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher" to illustrate how America's physical, ethical, and ideological landscapes have been mapped on in these works, and at the expenditure of, the female body. Juxtaposing The stories of Mary Rowlandson and Madeline Usher, two women, illustrates how whether they are "held captive," "restored," or “put living in the tomb,” continue a state of dependence, subject to communal and discursive creations of female identity and become exemplifications of white
So, in order to define what is a non-narrative and a narrative text, one should identify their main difference and because it is an essential point for this part of my dissertation but also for the examination of “A Room of One’s Own” (Woolf 2002), a brief analysis will be given. The main difference between a story and a narrative discourse lies within the kind of time and the kind of order. A non-narrative text is an essay where “the only time involved is the time it takes to read, and the only order is that of