The Narrative Of The Captivity And Restoration Mary Rowlandson Summary
Arielle Nainstein
Dr. Taylor S. Hagood
Colonial and Early American Lit
26 February 2015
For God or Merit: An Analysis of Mary Rowlandson’s Intentions
Concerning the Narration and Publication of Her Captivity and Restoration:
Around the time of the late 1600’s, it was extremely uncommon that an individual would encounter a professionally published piece of work written by a woman, let alone one that achieved notable fame. Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson was one of the first to break that mold by advertising itself as a religious text. During the time of King Philip’s war, Native American inhabitants were launching attacks on colonists in present-day New England. The settlers viewed the …show more content…
Her writings had to be presented in a manner that would attract people’s attention, regardless of the reader’s gender, race, or socioeconomic background. When examining the original cover of the publication, Rowlandson is portrayed as a woman holding a gun and protecting her town from a group of Native Americans. Oddly enough, Mary Rowlandson never actually picked up a gun, not even once, during her recorded narrative. So the question is, why would her publishing company depict her in this manner? Perhaps they wanted to embody her experiences and difficult encounters, or maybe they thought that a woman holding a weapon would be intriguing to those who identified with the country’s recent movement towards its independence from England. Nevertheless, the audience that identified with Rowlandson’s story the most were Puritan readers, due to the fact that the captives were seen as representatives of their religious …show more content…
Even though her narrative was purely spiritual, the author saw an opportunity to inspire her gender during a time where such a thing was easily discouraged and overlooked. From an unassuming perspective, the text offered a vibrant recount of her religious journey and commitment to her faith, offering reassurance to those Puritans who needed to see someone’s sovereignty be tested with successful results. However, the true underlying moral is for women to see that they have the ability to survive without the support of men and expose this audience to the fact that there are actually other societies that endorse the notion of female leadership. While this text may be popularly interpreted as a spiritually driven captivity narrative, Rowlandson may have very well known that some women would dig deeper into the meaning of the story and hopefully empower themselves as human
Dr. Taylor S. Hagood
Colonial and Early American Lit
26 February 2015
For God or Merit: An Analysis of Mary Rowlandson’s Intentions
Concerning the Narration and Publication of Her Captivity and Restoration:
Around the time of the late 1600’s, it was extremely uncommon that an individual would encounter a professionally published piece of work written by a woman, let alone one that achieved notable fame. Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson was one of the first to break that mold by advertising itself as a religious text. During the time of King Philip’s war, Native American inhabitants were launching attacks on colonists in present-day New England. The settlers viewed the …show more content…
Her writings had to be presented in a manner that would attract people’s attention, regardless of the reader’s gender, race, or socioeconomic background. When examining the original cover of the publication, Rowlandson is portrayed as a woman holding a gun and protecting her town from a group of Native Americans. Oddly enough, Mary Rowlandson never actually picked up a gun, not even once, during her recorded narrative. So the question is, why would her publishing company depict her in this manner? Perhaps they wanted to embody her experiences and difficult encounters, or maybe they thought that a woman holding a weapon would be intriguing to those who identified with the country’s recent movement towards its independence from England. Nevertheless, the audience that identified with Rowlandson’s story the most were Puritan readers, due to the fact that the captives were seen as representatives of their religious …show more content…
Even though her narrative was purely spiritual, the author saw an opportunity to inspire her gender during a time where such a thing was easily discouraged and overlooked. From an unassuming perspective, the text offered a vibrant recount of her religious journey and commitment to her faith, offering reassurance to those Puritans who needed to see someone’s sovereignty be tested with successful results. However, the true underlying moral is for women to see that they have the ability to survive without the support of men and expose this audience to the fact that there are actually other societies that endorse the notion of female leadership. While this text may be popularly interpreted as a spiritually driven captivity narrative, Rowlandson may have very well known that some women would dig deeper into the meaning of the story and hopefully empower themselves as human