Analysis of Mary Rowlandson

Literary Analysis February 10, 1675 was a sorrowful day for Mary Rowlandson’s hometown (Lancaster). Indians came and destroyed their town showing no remorse. Many were killed and wounded. Some were taken captive. Among those captive is a women named Mary Rowlandson. Throughout her captivity she kept a journal of all her removals and interactions she had with the Indians. The day the Indians invaded their town they used hatchets, arrows, and guns to scare and harm the colonists. Rowlandson herself was shot in the side from a raining cloud of bullets. Her sister’s eldest son gave word to her about them being wounded and she in return says “And Lord, let me die with them” (258). When her sister spoke these words, almost immediately after she was struck down and died. These illustrate just one of the beliefs that the Puritans believed in. Her sister asked the lord to take her life and so he did. “I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed” says Rowlandson (259). When they approached the town the Indians had decided to stay in, the Indians demonstrated some of their cultural traditions. “Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell” (259). The next morning as they packed up their things and headed for the next town Mary thinks to herself “It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that is did not quite fail” (260). During the second removal Rowlandson mentions her bullet wound and how it makes it hard for her to stand or sit. She believes in God a tremendous amount and gives him credit for allowing her body to have strength enough to go on. “Oh I may see the wonderful power of God, that my spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction:

Cited: Rowlandson, Mary. The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson .. Lancaster, Ma.: S.n., 1953. Print.