Mary Rowlandson Narrative Of The Captivity Summary

What would happen to the person who is captured by the Indians who constantly chop off people’s head and strip off people’s scalps? Beheaded? Dismembered? Eaten? No matter what happens, it is hard to imagine that there is any possibility that one would survive this dreadful captivity. However, there is a woman who survived her 11-month captivity, saved her children who were captured as well, and eventually published a book to tell her unbelievable story. She is Mary Rowlandson – a mother, an American colonist, and a pious Christian. Her book, The Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, uncovers the mystery of the thrilling journey to its audiences through strong literary elements: the first-person point of view, symbolism, and allusion.

Using the pronoun I, she expresses not only what she saw, heard, tasted, and felt but also her internal feelings and thoughts. At the beginning of her captivity, Rowlandson has to travel with the Indians into the vast and desolate wilderness. She expressed her reluctance and pain through her narrative: “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.” Later when Indians kindly offered her and her baby to ride the horse, “there being no furniture upon the horse's back, as we were going down a steep hill we both fell over the horse's head, at which they, like inhumane creatures, laughed, and rejoiced to see it, though I thought we should there have ended our days, as overcome with so many difficulties.” Rowlandson subjectively narrates how humiliated and furious she felt when she was laughed at by the savage Indians even if the Indians helped her. Her calling the Indians savage, barbarian, wolves, and pagans is also a reflection of her first-person perspective. Moreover, after Rowlandson was ransomed, she expressed her gratitude not to the Puritans who raised the money, but to the God. She also considered the torment as the providence of the God to make her a better Christian with a stronger faith. The whole book shows the audiences a strong religious feature and emphasizes the theme of Divine Providence from her first-person point of