How Is Mary Rowlandson Similar To The Savage Nature Of The Indians?

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The captivity of Mary Rowlandson proved to be a test of her strong will and determination to survive, that pushed her religious faith to its limits. With the onset of King Phillip’s war, the life of the Puritans was evermore changing. Was this solely due to the savage nature of the Indian or was there an underlying frustration that was developing? Had the Indian’s tolerance of being banished from their land and their way of life being desecrated lasted long enough? Throughout the years many changes had taken place within the New World and its inhabitants. As we study this time period, we can also relate several differences and similarities between the generations. In 1620, when the Pilgrims first settled at Plymouth they were in desperate …show more content…

Is this simply a way of the Puritan people and their religious beliefs or is it a coping mechanism to allow her to heal from the emotional, physical, and questionable sexual trauma that she has experienced? We also see this type of suppression throughout the writings of Anna Bradstreet. She writes of the inequality of men and women and how she would be regarded by her peers. Perhaps, Mary omits details of her captivity because of the way she felt her husband and society would view …show more content…

She completely practices the Bible scripture, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse (Romans 12:14). Sure, she mentions being mistreated by the Indians by not having food to eat, a warm place to sleep, the burying of her child in her absence, and being slapped or disregarded, but throughout her story she allows the reader to experience the small miracles that God provides her. Examples of this is shown when she is given food to eat, a covering to keep her warm, allowed to visit her sister and son, and most importantly when receives a Bible. She continuously finds comfort in the verses of the Bible and even relates to it as a comfort in her time of need. She quotes the scriptures whenever she is weak and fears that she can no longer go on, she reads when she feels overwhelmed with grief, she finds refuge in every passage, and she relates the word of God into every situation that troubles her. Mary also tells of an Indian and his squaw that asked her to run away with them back to her home, but she refused by saying that she would wait on God’s time and his deliverance. Mary’s story depicts the true meaning of what her faith was all about. Even though her enemies were all around her, she continued to uphold her faith and the belief in her