What Is The Purpose Of The Tempest By Mary Rowlandson

Mary Rowlandson was held captive by the Narragansetts in 1676. She wrote a book called A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson telling about the uncertainties of the “violent English advance “civilization” and “savagery”(Takaki 43).

Since the English stereotype at the time were that Native Indians were inferior, Rowlandson's account, which was significant to U.S. History was one of many stories told to change the thinking of the settlers. The Indians way of life was foreign to them. They didn't understand their ways. Because the Indian's didn't behave like the settlers, they were labeled savages. The Native Indians were the first people in the U.S. and their way of life was looked down upon. However, in captivity, Rowlandson learned that these people were hospitable and resourceful. There were hopes that maybe her "observations, [which is] acknowledging the humanity of the Indians, were possibilities for the English to understand, even empathized with, the people they were dispossessing"(Takaki 44).

The making of English-America was comparable to Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, as the "play invites us to view English expansion...as a defining moment in the making of an English-American identity based on race" (Takaki 28). Indians were targeted as settlers continued to attack and destroy their villages. If there was any resistance, it was considered as "fury of the savages"(Takaki 35). Some stories were happy, sad or endings that would leave one hanging. This chapter was mostly sad and the only part the would be close to