A Narrative Of The Captivity Mary Rowlandson Summary

Puritan and Indian cultures collide in Mary Rowlandson 's " A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." This is a Puritan woman 's account of her captivity during the King James 's War in the Indian raid on Lancaster, Massachusetts. A leading Indian family held her in captivity for eleven weeks before she is returned to her husband. She wrote about her experiences, she describes traveling from one "remove" to another with her Indian master, experiencing hard work and a cold environment. When an author begins a piece of literature they must address an audience. Rowlandson 's work seems to prove no different in which she took extreme care to keep her religious audience content. Upon analyzing this piece of literature,
Most of the citations she quotes from the Good Book are based on the message of God 's grace and how His mercy is the driving force behind her survival. In the final paragraph of the fifth Remove, Rowlandson describes how the Indians, no matter how sick, old, or tired they may be, still had the strength to press on. She states, "And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen . . . ". Rowlandson does not understand why God gives them the energy to continue the barbaric battles and torturous traveling.
Rowlandson 's conclusion to her narrative seems to only enhance her Puritian beliefs of the Indians. She states, "I have seen the extrem vanity of this World: One hour I have been in health, and wealth, wanting nothing: But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction." Through this, one sees her Puritan society has forced her into a comfortable, sheltered lifestyle, a paradise world. This lifestyle does not require her to "want" anything that she now sees as truly valuable. Through her Removes, however, she has witnessed pain and death, causing her to want