Mary Rowlandson Captivity Analysis

“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” is a personal account, written by Mary Rowlandson herself about her eleven-week captivity by the Indians, which not only gives the readers a first person perspective of life in captivity, but also an insight to Rowlandson’s views of the Indians. When first reading this narrative, one would think that the main purpose is to simply tell how horrible her experience in captivity was, and how it had changed her. However, that is not the main purpose of her narrative. In fact, her captivity changes neither her Puritan value nor her view towards Indians. Throughout the narrative, she unapologetically, and continuously compares them to animals—and even Satan—for not being Puritans.
They set fire to Rowlandson’s house, and when she and her family try to escape, they are shot and captured by the Indians. Some of her family members are dead, while the rest of them that are still alive are separated from her and her youngest daughter. Their journey with the Indians for the first few days is difficult and painful because both her and her daughter are badly injured. As the time went on, her daughter becomes increasing ill, until eventually she passes away. After her death, Rowlandson despairs over the fate of her family, and struggles to keep her faith in God, until one day, one of her captors gives her a Bible, and in that she gleans comfort and hope. The narrative then continues to go on in sections of Remove to Remove with a total of twenty Removes, each of which contains at least one Bible allusion. Over those eleven weeks in captivity, she dealt with the loss of her family and friends and her living conditions while also learning to cope with the Indians amongst whom she lives. At first, she is shocked—even disgusted—at the lifestyle that the Indians lead, but her dependence on the same lifestyle is needed in order for her to
Rowlandson continually refers to the Bible and writes about how everything happens because of God’s will. Starting from the Preface to the Reader, where the author presents the narrative as a model of divine providence, provides legitimacy to Rowlandson’s narrative, and instructs the reader to use the narrative as a spiritual tool that is published only for the glory of God despite Rowlandson’s modesty. Throughout the narrative, Rowlandson affirms her faith in divine providence. She frequently cites scripture and references the power of divine providence to communicate her spiritual message. She affirms that nothing bad exists that is not God’s doing, and that it not for the ultimate good of Puritans, His chosen people. For example, on the third remove, she thought to herself, “I then remembered how careless I had been of God’s holy time; how many Sabbaths I had lost and misspent, and how evilly I had walked in God’s sight; which lay so close upon my Spirit, that it was easy for me to see how righteous it was with God to cut off the thread of my life, and cast me out of his presence forever. Yet the Lord still showed mercy to me, and upheld me” (31); she believes that her captivity is the result of her sinful past, and that God is punishing