Mary Rowlandson Captivity Analysis

Mary Rowlandson who wrote A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson described her first person experience she had with Native Americans. She depicts the events as would be seen by an outside observer which become partly biased due to the emotions she felt during captivity. Her story takes place during King Philip’s War, a territorial battle between Native Americans and English settlers. Mary and her children were captured and taken as prisoners by Native Americans in order to be ransomed off. Mary was later sold to a neighboring Indian tribe which she obtained a bible and allowed her to practice religion. Mary’s strong faith in Christianity allowed her to survive her arduous and emotional journey. Mary’s captivity
narrative is significant from the religious overtones which carried her through her ordeal. She finds comfort and strength in the bible which was given to her by her captors. As Mary describes in her narrative “I took my Bible to read, and that quieting Scripture came to my hand, Psal. 46. 10. Be still, and know that I am God. Which stilled my spirit for the present” (Rowlandson P.82). Her faith in her religion is reinforced how she keeps faith and believes that everything good or bad is the work of God. “Yet the Lord still shewed mercy to me, and upheld me; and as he wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other” (Rowlandson P. 76). The Puritans had a strong belief that God controlled their lives. This leads Mary to think the reason the war was not won sooner was because they did not learn their lesson from God yet.