A Narrative Of The Captivity Mary Rowlandson Summary

Mary Rowlandson was one of the first Colonial age women to create a captivity narrative about the Indians (Native Americans) and the torments endured while being a captive. With a more in-depth look at captivity natives one can see as stated by http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/captive.htm that, “In [a captivity narrative] a single individual, usually a woman, stands passively under the strokes of evil, awaiting rescue by the grace of God.” The main purpose, idea, no almost lesson that can be derived from the story however is that if one is a devoted God loving individual and one endures the punishment than one will become closer to God and have a better understanding of what is important in life on earth. Rowlandson broke the mold of the tradition way to teach the lessons of God by producing a story of extraordinary and gruesome events. At her time this was a brilliant stretch to capture the audience of readers that was becoming use to the idea of almost a preaching style of writing that showed the mercy and might of God. Rowlandson brought them a new kind of tale, one of adventure, faith, terror and will to survive. This method is one still in use as of today to draw in an audience that is curious of the terror and wishes to see what would happen if

Mary Rowlandson, she tells the story as if it were merely a horrifying personal account, but throughout she references God and questions why this is happening which draws the reader to wonder the same yet she shows to the reader as she progresses that maybe everything isn’t as terrible as it seems, because she has God on her side and eventually when she proves herself worthy to God she will be set free. This idea is brought up many times and especially when she had an opportunity to escape and choose not to. Instead she chose to wait and be freed at a later time, because her punishment was not through in her