Mary Rowlandson Captivity Analysis

Mary Jemison had a markedly different captivity experience. In the late 1750s, when Jemison was just fifteen years old, her family was captured by the Seneca Indians. Soon after they were captured, Jemison saw her family murdered and scalped. Like Rowlandson and Cabeza de Vaca, she was initially in fear for her life. She expected at any moment that she too would be scalped by her captors. At the same time, like Rowlandson, she was just as frightened by the idea of escape. She lamented that should she sneak away that she would be “alone and defenseless in the forest, surrounded by wild beasts that were ready to devour” her (Seaver).

​Mary Rowlandson and her kids were captured by the Indian in the year 1676. In her

The Natives abducted Mary and her children in an attempt to secure another victory against the English; though the midst of this chaos, Mary recounted the many unstable, manipulative events in her captivity.

“The Account of Mary Rowlandson and Other Indian Captivity Narratives” and “The Preface to the Reader” tells the story of how Mary Rowlandson was taken captive by the Narragansett and sold to the sagamores. Mary Rowlandson was the wife of Reverend Joseph Rowlandson who was a Puritan minister.

“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson is a short history about her personal experience in captivity among the Wampanoag Indian tribe. On the one hand, Mary Rowlandson endures many hardships and derogatory encounters. However, she manages to show her superior status to everyone around her. She clearly shows how her time spent under captivity frequently correlates with the lessons taught in the Bible. Even though, the colonists possibly murdered their chief, overtook their land, and tried to starve the Native Americans by burning down their corn, which was their main source of food, she displays them as demonizing savages carrying out the devil's plan. There are many struggles shown

In “’Streams of Scripture Comfort’ Mary Rowland’s Typological Use of the Bible,” David Downing makes the argument, “she presents what occurred during her captivity in the language if spiritual autobiography and gives evidence of God’s sovereignty and grace, and of her own place among the elect. She also views her captivity broadly, as a type of Puritan experience in the New World, and as an emblem of the soul victimized by Satan” (252). Downing’s fist argument discusses how Rowlandson is writing a spiritual autobiography, which is when some writes their journey to find divine peace. The other argument Downing makes is how Rowlandson is using her experience as a learning tool for other Puritans.

Since God was not tolerant of sinners and evil acts, Mary recounted many different acts that were considered evil or barbaric that the Native Americans did. For example, when the Native Americans attacked Mary’s town, she described the aftermath as, “a solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their blood, some here and some there, like a company of sheep torn by wolves,” (Derounian 12-51). Mary separates the

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.

Mary Rowlandson’s memoir The Sovereignty and Goodness of God was indeed a compelling, thorough and praise worthy piece of literature. Rowlandson, not only recollected a chapter of her life, she delivered a solid visual of the circumstances during Metacom’s War. Rowlandson being a minister’s wife, a Puritan and pious women, gives us her journey with the Indians. Without any hesitation she narrates the journey she experienced and in the following essay, I will be discussing portions of her journey, and the significance of religion 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 captured by a group of Narragansett Indians on February 10, 1676; she remained with them until her release on May 2, 1676, where she was ransomed for twenty pounds. In those three months, Rowlandson endured a variety of hardships that ultimately took away her identity. She fought laboriously to preserve her autonomy, but in order to survive, she gave into the life of a native. Her choice of going native was brought upon her in times of survival and perseverance when she was fighting to stay alive for her family and her life that she once called her own. She displays her entire captivity in the narrative she wrote after her release from the Indians where she uses typology to describe how God made her go through this trial as a way to show her strength and commitment to Him. At the time, captivity narratives were used as an instrument of colonization, a way to settle among and establish control over the Indians; they were produced mostly by and for European colonists. Rowlandson wrote her captivity story, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” as a way to bring about colonization in a community she was otherwise separated from by her loss of identity.

Beginning in the “First Remove” of Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative, she discusses being taken away by the

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.

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.

In her writing titled “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”, Mary lies out for the reader her experience of being held in captivity by Indians during the King Philip’s War. Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of this writing is the glimpse that the reader gets into Rowlandson’s faith and religion. Faith was a major aspect of life in the Colonial Period. It was of widespread belief that God was to be feared, and that he was the only way to redemption (Kizer). Mary Rowlandson was no different, but the extreme conditions of her captivity caused her faith to occasionally waiver. Most of the time throughout her journey in captivity, she depended on God, and the