A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson Essay

On June 20, 1675, Metacomet, also known as Philip by the early Ameri substructure colonist, led a series of attacks on colonial settlements that lasted for more than a year. These attacks became known as King Philips War. It was a desperate attempt by the Natives to retain their land as their gloss and resources dwindled in advance them. bloody shame Rowlandson, a famous victim of these Indian attacks, recounts her eleven-week internment in her create book, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. The book describes her experience as a captive of the Wampanoags in enceinte detail, and combines high adventure, heroism, and exemplary piety, which made it a popular piece in the seventeenth century. Throughout the narrative Mary Rowlandson portrays her skills as a source with the delineation of her character.In her captivity, Mary Rowland realizes that sprightliness is short and nothing is certain. The third estate theme of precariousness teaches Row landson that she can bourgeon nothing for grated. In a star day the seeming stability of life disappears without warning as represent in the opening scene when the town of Lancaster is burned garbage down and she is separated from her two elder children. Rowlandson transitions from a wife of a soused minister with iii children to a captive prisoner with a single wounded daughter in one day. Another instance of uncertainty is amid The Twelfth Remove, where she is approved by her master to be change to her husband, save the future(a) day in The Thirteenth Remove she writes, kind of of going toward the Bay, which was that I desired, I must go with them five or six miles down the river into the mighty thicket of brush where we abode virtually a fortnight (271).In addition to the uncertainty nothing in her captivity was consistent either. One day the Indians treat her keepfully, while the next day they give her no food. This incompatibility can be seen amidst The Eighth Re move and The ninth Remove. In The Eighth Remove, Rowlandson is asked to make non-homogeneous garments in return for a shilling and different typesfoods however, in The Ninth Remove, Rowland was asked to make a shirt, but receives nothing in return (267-268). The inconsistency stems from the uncertain future, which plants fear in Rowlandsons character. The only light she can see in her dark captivity is the light of her God.As a Puritan, Rowlandson believes that Gods will shapes the events in her life, and that each event serves a purpose. The common Puritan belief that humans have no choice, but to accept Gods will and make sense of it is portrayed throughout her narrative. This belief in God produces values of fortitude and endeavor Rowlandson uses to survive the eleven-week captivity. This is can be seen in The Second Remove as she is about to collapse from fatigue and injury, but the Lord renewed my cleverness still, and carried me along, that I might see more of his power (2 60).Rowlandson often creates parallels amongst her own situation and biblical verses about the Israelites because the Puritans thought they were the descendants of the Israelites in the new initiation. This is portrayed in the closing scene when Rowlandson is reunited with her family and she quotes Moses speaking to the Israelites, radix still and see the salvation of the Lord (288). Moses said this to the Israelites at their arriver to the promise land after forty days of wandering in the desert. Rowlandson comp atomic number 18s her captivity to the forty days in the desert, and her reunion with her family to the arrival at the promise land.In Rowlandsons captivity, her perspective of the Native Indians evolves from savagery to aspects of niceness. The more time she spent with the Natives the more relations she made with them that culminate into respect and appreciation for their culture. Initially Rowlandson considered the Natives barbarous creatures who made the place a ex peditious resemblance of hell after the burning of Lancaster (259). As a end point she speculates the Natives as violent savages. She was also disgusted with the various foods they ate much(prenominal) as ground nuts, tree bark, and horse liver nevertheless, after three weeks of starvation she acquired a sagaciousness for the irregular foods.This is depicted in The ordinal Remove, but the third week I could starve and die before I could eat much(prenominal) things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste (265). This expresses a minor change of heart Rowlandsonhas for the Natives as she finds herself eating the homogeneous foods and enjoying them. In addition to the acquired taste of the Native foods, more similarities become apparent(a) such as praying Indians who claim to have converted to Christianity and some instances where the Natives are wearing colonists clothing (279). The once distinct difference in civility and savagery becomes blurred in the similarities Rowland notices between the colonist and the Natives.Rowlandson explores the fearful swinging most colonists feel in the face of the new human beings. The new world is the unknown environments outside the colonies, mainly toward the west. This includes the forest and wooded areas that are associated with the Natives. It is where the Natives live, where they take their captives, and a place of unknown to the colonist, which made it fearful. Rowlandson described it as a place of deep dungeon and high and steep hill (266). In Rowlandsons captivity, she is pushed into the forest where her experience brings her further away from civilization. Her and other captives, such as Robert Pepper, gain practical knowledge about the natural world during their time spent with the Indians. Although this knowledge is key to her survival, it brings her anxiety and guilt because she feels as though she is being pushed from civilization.The delineated characterization of Mary Rowlandson in her published book , A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, depicts the way Puritans approached life with religious concepts and beliefs, but the influence of the Native culture is what separates her work as the first captivity narrative. In her captivity she loses her original physiological hostage through eleven weeks of uncertainty and inconsistency. This forces her to think outside her Puritan political theory into the new world of different environments and experiences. Her new experiences allow her to grow and evaluate the differences of the new world, and in her reflection Rowlandson closes the gap between the Natives and Puritans by identifying the similarities between the two cultures.