Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narratives
Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narration of their hard experience during captivity and slavery played a very significant role in revealing much about the conditions of women during that time. As most of the critics believe that telling a story from the point view of an oppressed group as women in a male dominant society, will guarantee a new framework of resistance and will break the typical image of women as being submissive and Marginalized. Moreover, these two writers, through their narration were able to endure all the difficulties and the hardships as loosing freedom and the sexual abuse, to seek the rights of all other women, and to fight for the elimination of both slavery and captivity. Harriet Jacobs in her narration of “Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself” decided to take the risk and to narrate her own experience as being slave and oppressed by the white system abuse. Although she is not the only one who wrote about slavery and its condition, but as William Andrews said “"Many of the ugly truths of the black woman's condition in slavery had been widely publicized
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Her narrative focuses on the white women experience of captivity, and it aims to highlight the struggles and the humiliation the English captivate went through. However, most of the critics believe that Rowlandson is prejudice, as she views herself and her culture as more superior and more pure. Throughout the whole narrative she intentionally describes the Indian as barbarous creatures, murderous wretches, and wolves. It is true that she was imprisoned by the Indian, but she herself admit that she did not exposed any physical or sexual violence, unlike Jacobs who suffers from all kinds of physical and sexual oppression. Moreover, Rowlandson used an overly emotional language to impress her audience and to gain their