Rowlandson's Narrative Analysis

It is important to notice that, for Rowlandson, her faith is a very important part as a Puritan woman, but also as the daughter and wife of Puritan’s reverends. The Puritan colonies went through several struggles in those years due to the Indian’s attacks and the faith of the community on the bible helps them to survive and fight for these lands. In several points of her narration, Rowlandson “interpreted her capture and the eleven weeks spent as captive, through a religious lens.” (Andrews, 9) This religious perspective of the events is a clear connection for someone as well-read and educated in Puritanism as Mary because “captivity, in the Old Testament, is viewed as a means of both instruction (and spiritual testing) and correction (or punishment)”
(Andrews, 9). During her captivity, she is in need of elements that comfort her spirit and that makes her forget the difficult moments she is going through alone in an unknown context. In that point the bible helps her to understand what is happening in her life and to put “her experience in the wilderness into a typological and therefore, meaningful context”(Logan, 255). Just as (Henwood, 182) expresses, the bible protects herself in the wild nature and aids her to become less vulnerable and stronger to face what she interprets like God’s will to teach her some lessons. The bible helps her to stay closer to her origins, to avoid forgetting from where she comes and why she is there, and transform her into a very powerful heroine able to fight against her despair, following her principles (Henwood, 171). Moreover “the familiar language of the scriptures, especially the Psalms, (to) reassure herself that her suffering has meaning” (Henwood, 170), providing her nourishment for her