Captivity Narrative Analysis

The American people have long been fascinated with the captivity narrative genre. The idea that innocent beings would be taken from their homes into a wilderness or to a foreign land at a moments notice has really “captured” America's imagination. Even to this day we see how Americans continue to love this topic. Two stories early on in the settlement of America that really sparked this great fanaticism for the captivity genre include A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. These narratives describe the captivity of two people during the colonization of the Americas. They help explain the sorrow, treatment, and other difficulties that they faced during their captivity. In

LIke stated above both of these characters started to feel comfortable at some point in their captivity. The reason this was mentioned is because they actually experienced it. If someone just wrote about being captured but never went through it then the story will contain a lot of bias. This bias would mainly include the cruelty of the capturers and nothing about the good things that they did. Given these points, we notice that in both of our stories our characters slowly become comfortable in their captivity. However, things are only getting better for Rowlandson as things get worse for Equiano. Rowlandson begins to get this great treatment by the natives. In contrast, Equiano was treated well at this family but it didn't last very long. He was later taken to the bay where he sees slaves ships. All this stuff fascinated him until he was being boarded onto on of these ships. He was instantly scared out of his mind. But things for him only got worse for him. He witnessed all these sick peoples dying and faced extreme hunger. So many things were going through his mind. He had no idea what these men were going to do to them. He believed that maybe they were going to eat them. All this was happening and on top of that he had already lost his sister having no idea where she was or what was happening to her. This is the biggest difference that our two characters had throughout their experience during

They have really inspired America and are admired by so many people. Both Equiano and Rowlandson went through their sad and happy moments. But in the end Equiano had it the hardest of all. He lost a loved one but that was only the beginning of his missuries. He also had to go through being sold a number of times and being boarded on a slave ship. He did not know what was going to happen to him or what these people wanted. He experienced lots of hunger and witnessed illnesses. In the end he was lucky to come out alive. Overall, this is why Americans love the captivity genre. But our characters always had hope to come out on top. Like William Samuel Johnson said, “Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be