Compare And Contrast John Smith Vs Rowlandsson

Smith v Rowlandson The New World – filled with new hope, new land, and new dangers. The latter is described through the sensationalized tale of John Smith in The General History of Virginia and reiterated by Mary Rowlandson in her Puritan didactic narrative in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Both author’s exploit their experiences on the frontier in different ways. Firstly, we have the famous Captain John Smith. A young, adventurous, capable young man whose exploits have earned him both fame and infamy. Smith an Englishman and explorer set on his adventure to the New World. In his account Smith seems to paint himself as the “survivor hero.” He continuously speaks in third person and represents
Smith offered his audience an excitable – entertaining – visual detail of Native Americans, which only made his story more like an action-adventure. Immediately after this description Smith made sure to mention that he and his men defeated the savages almost effortlessly, also adding that the surviving Native American’s were willing to settle in peace. With this Smith took on the “heroic leader” role by settling a peace deal that left the Explorer’s with the upper hand and the Native American’s “dancing in sign of friendship” (Norton, 85). Smith described this scenario with a narrative ease that could only leave future explorers to assume the Native American’s weak and not something to concern themselves over. Further proof that Smith presented his captivity as a tale of survival for the heroic protagonist is when he described an interaction with the Native’s that was more of a