Compare And Contrast Equiano And Mary Rowlandson

In 1675, New England sees war breakout between Native American and English forces. Over one half of New England’s towns and settlements are rampaged by Indians, and both sides suffer thousands of casualties. However, through the bloodshed and wreckage, one woman lives to tell the story of her capture by Native Americans. Mary Rowlandson, the lucky survivor, spends eleven weeks in brutal captivity, after being seriously wounded and seeing her own child die in her arms. How she survives her experience is nearly impossible to pinpoint directly, but her devotion to her religion can be tied to her method of survival. Rowlandson’s commitment to her religion equips her with a coping mechanism and keeps her thoughts positive during her

On the date of February 10, 1675, the New American was attacked by the British settlement Lancaster in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As the result, The European had destroyed the village, wounded and killed the local people in New England. In the attack of the British settlement Lancaster, Mary Rowlandson and her family got in adversity. In the article, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”, the author described that “Their first coming was about Sun-rising; hearing the noise of some Guns, we looked out; several Houses were burning, and the Smoke ascending to Heaven.” (Salisbury 68) She wounded, her family members were killed. Mary Rowlandson and her children were isolated causing 20 moves in her life cycle.

Mary Rowlandson, William Bradford and Equiano all had their own views and beliefs on religion. During the period of the 16th and 17th century, people relied very heavily on the presence of God. For example, Mary Rowlandson and William Bradford were puritans. They were dependent upon God. Puritans believed that the Bible was God’s true law, and it provided them with a way of life. They would praise God with the positive attributes that comes in their life and acknowledge God with the sorrow and despair. Mary believed that it was an act of God that provided her with a bible, gave her the strength to resist tobacco, prevented her foot from getting wet in the cold water, which would play a part in her weakened body and gave her the resilience to

Olaudah Equiano’s “From the Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano” is written with the intent of ending the slave trade and aiding the abolitionists’ movement. His narrative tells his personal story of kidnapping, being sold into slavery and his experience in the middle passage. According to this account Olaudah Equiano grew up in Africa with a large family. He was captured and sold into slavery at age eleven. As an adult he became an opposing voice to slavery. This autobiography was published in Britain, with the help of abolitionists. This gives a purpose to Equiano’s writing and the purpose is shown throughout the text as Equiano tries to expose the evil of the slave trade.

Suffering is part of the human condition in which one undergoes pain, distress or hardships. When most people suffer from any sort of distress, they experience terrible agony. Depression, at times, is their end result. However, others attempt to escape suffering and become stronger individuals. They begin discovering inner strengths, which allows them to get past suffering rather than becoming weaker. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano and A Narrative of the Captivity by Mary Rowlandson are both narratives written by two individuals in which they are faced with the challenge of overcoming obstacles that refrain them from growing stronger and detaining from the affliction they are met with. These obstacles include of distress, struggles and difficulties.

Captivity narratives were popular with readers in both America and the European continent during the era of North and South American discovery and colonization. They related the experiences of whites being enslaved by Native Americans and of Africans being enslaved by whites. Two captivity narratives that were widely read during the time are A Narrative of the Capture and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano. They relate the experiences of a married white Puritan woman captured by Native Americans and an African boy captured for the American slave trade at a young age respectively. They were often used as propaganda, Europeans during this time created stereotypes for Native Americans as being cruel and warlike and helped whites to start to see the slavery of African-Americans as wrong. The two narratives are similar in the use of diction to describe each author’s fear of their captors. Further examination reveals several other similarities and differences in the purposes of the narratives as well as in the experiences, reactions, comforts, and views about religion of these two captives.

Mary Rowlandson was an American wife and mother who had experienced captivity for eleven dreadful weeks. Olaudah Equiano was an African American who wanted to break free from the chains of slavery. He eventually purchased his freedom after ten gruesome years. Both Rowlandson and Equiano inspired people from two different eras to never give up in insufferable situations. The stories themes are similar in that they both concern two individuals that accompany a female relative, experienced humility, and were sold against their will for financial gain. However, the methods of how they received their freedom were different, both maintained contrasting attitudes toward their captors, and possessed

In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan mother from Lancaster, Massachusetts, recounts the invasion of her town by Indians in 1676 during “King Philip’s War,” when the Indians attempted to regain their tribal lands. She describes the period of time where she is held under captivity by the Indians, and the dire circumstances under which she lives. During these terrible weeks, Mary Rowlandson deals with the death of her youngest child, the absence of her Christian family and friends, the terrible conditions that she must survive, and her struggle to maintain her faith in God. She also learns how to cope with the

For one year beginning on June 20, 1675 “more than twelve hundred houses had been burned, about six hundred English colonials were dead and three thousand American Indians killed,” (Baym, 2013) in king Phillips’ war. During these troubling times, many were captured and used as bargaining chips. One such individual was Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, she later penned a narrative of her captivity. Throughout the captivity narrative, the undeniable hold of time, place and religion is evident to the reader and vividly illustrated.

We all have been in a bad situation yet very few of us would go as far as to label themselves as suffering. To suffer is to experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. In the cases of Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano they both had to endure watching those near them grasped by the cold hands of death. Unlike Equiano, Mary was subjected to a form of suffering that created conflicts within herself concerning her predicament and her god. Equiano on the other hand was placed in isolation with those around him choosing to commit suicide,thus leading him to the edge of depression.

How would you describe the lives of two different authors, Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano? In two similar narratives, the authors Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano describe their lives while being taken captive. In Rowlandson’s, from A Narrative of the Captivity, she describes why she was taken captive, how she was treated and the portrayal of her captors. Also, in Equiano’s narrative, from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, his story compares to the way Rowlandson wrote hers. Although the lives of these two individuals compare in many ways, there are also ways they are contrasted.

Mary Rowlandson is a European woman who was captured by the Native Americans during King Philips’ war and was held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. Rowlandson wrote, Narrative of the Captivity and restorations of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, which describes her experiences, and everything the natives went through. Ouladah Equiano; an African male, was kidnapped and sold as a slave. Ouladah wrote The interesting Narrative of the life of Ouladah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African. Equiano's text describes his experience in slavery after his kidnapping and the struggles slaves endure. Even though both Rowlandson and Equiano were kidnapped, their experiences in captivity and the aim of their narratives are quite different. While both may have

Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano are both victims of captivity and share their stories through detailed personal experiences in their narratives on captivity. Rowlandson was an American settler that faced the hardship of being captured during a period where tension was high between Native Americans and the American settlers. Equiano shares a similar story growing up in Guinea west of modern day Nigeria, a major slave trade port in Africa where Nigerians were kidnapped and sold into slavery. Comparing the historical context that led to the captures of both Rowlandson and Equiano, to their depictions in their narratives are important because they are the events that took place in society that sparked the narratives of captivity written by

Their telling of the events during such times as these, and the use of literary devices to get these points across, give an important lesson to the readers. This lesson being not only to keep the memory of these events alive, but to also prevent such an event from happening. Although Equiano’s text was written also to stop slavery at the time, its message has an important use today, just like Wiesel’s, to prevent another mass homicide or enslavement. This is why reading and discussing texts such as these is

The captivity narrative and the slave narrative are two types of literary works, which were very common during the 17th and the 18th century. The captivity narrative usually involves an innocent white woman who is taken captive by an Indian tribe, who the woman describes as savages in most of the cases. On the other hand, the slave narrative focuses on the quality of life that slaves were facing before the time of the abolishment of slavery. Although the captivity narrative and the slave narrative show some similarities, they are completely different. We can observe the differences by analyzing two literary works, A Narrative of The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson and From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself by Olaudah Equiano. A Narrative of The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a narrative written by Mary Rowlandson herself, which sheds light on her own experiences revolving captivity. The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano gives the reader insight into the life of a slave, the treatments they endure, and usually their freedom, whether it be through escaping or other means. Both narratives usually include real-life accounts, however, the differences lie in the structure of the narrative, the purpose that the narrative is trying to lay out and the treatment of the parties who are living these experiences.