Rowlandson's Captivity and Restoration

Rowlandson’s Captivity and Restoration
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Rowlandson’s Captivity and Restoration
Mary Rowlandson’s personal reflection as a prisoner is one of the most well known examples of captivity narratives in American literature. In the narrative, which was first published in 1682, Rowlandson explains the shocking story of the attack on Lancaster by the Native Americans in 1675, which was a result of a continued conflict between British colonists and the displaced Native Americans. In the attack, Rowlandson saw her brother-in-law, nephew, sister, and many others, killed. She was wounded, and taken as hostages together with her six-year-old daughter “Sarah”. In the narrative, she tells the story of her daughter’s death, and how she was forced to travel through the frontier forests with a group of Wampanoag Indians. This paper intends to discuss how Mary Rowlandson defines herself as a pure Puritan woman; how she portrays her believe in God; and how God was on her side despite the much hard times she endured.
The founding puritans believed that everything happened for a reason and did not despair. As a result, Mary Rowlandson being a pure Puritan woman believes that despite all the traumatizing events that had occurred to her life, God was still on her side. Her wounds were so stiff that she could barely stand, and she had no any other option rather than sitting the whole night upon the snowy ground, with her sick daughter on her arms. Every hour seemed as the last of her child’s life, and she had no any Christian friend to comfort or help her. Although she was all alone, she could feel the might power of God, and she believed that it was by His mercy and graciousness that she and her daughter were alive.Puritans believed that Sabbath was a holy day, and they abandoned their daily chores to worship God. Rowlandson portrays this in her narrative by claiming that her captors forced her to work on the Sabbath day. She begged them to rest on the Sabbath day, and promised to do as much the following day, but they did not take heed to her cries. On the contrary, they responded by telling her that they would break her face, and all what she could do was to take thank God for His protection by preserving the heathen. Moreover, on their journey through the forest, Rowlandson recalls of her life back at home, how they lived happily with her husband, children, sisters, and other relatives. However, she did not give up on God’s power, but she encouraged herself by quoting the words of Job from the Bible that naked she came out of her mother’s womb, and naked she would go back. By this, she portrays a clear picture of a true Puritan believer.
Rowlandson believed that her peop...