Americans have long been fascinated with the captivity narrative genre. The idea that an innocent could be taken from home and into violence a wilderness of foreign and at a moments notice has “captured” America’s imagination from the time of the early colonist who loved the narratives to modern day movie-goers who thrill in movie such as Taken. Two frequency read narratives- from America’s past. A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the life Olaudah Equiano focus on their captivity and them being held hostage. While these narratives differ on many fronts there are plenty of commonalities. Mary Rowlandson was captured by the Wampanoag Indians. Mary had captors they were known as her ‘miserable comforters’ …show more content…
He had never seen a white man before and was scared they were going to eat them. Him and many others were kept on a deck aboard. Sometimes Equiano would have rather been dead then to deal with the horrors aboard. He survived the trip to the colonies, and then learned the language of the white man. By learning how to speak their language he then was able to work for money and then bought his freedom. To show others the horrors of the slave ship he then wrote an autobiography with a target audience of Christian readers. There was many similarities and also many differences from the experiences that Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano had. Equiano’s captors were a lot crueler than Rowlandson’s captors were. Rowlandson was able to gain respect while Equiano wasn’t even allowed food. When the slaves were bought out they wrote about their experiences for multiple purposes. Rowlandson wrote for the spiritual purposes, but Equiano on the other hand wrote to change people’s views on slavery. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano were humiliated and dealt with fear during this time. While in slavery they adapted to the surroundings and the lifestyle and that way they were able to survive. Rowlandson and Equiano each wrote about slavery and the relation to