Mary Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative

Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, A Narrative of The Captivity and Restoration, written with many dominant motifs and different story structuring methods which provide to the overall interpretation of the story. During King Phillips War, Mary Rowlandson and the English explorers in Lancaster, Massachusetts were under attack by the Wampanoag Indians on February of 1675, Rowlandson was one of 25 in the community taken captive and held prisoner for 11 weeks following the attack, to create the captivity account known as “A Narrative of The Captivity and Restoration” Written by Mary Rowlandson. Rowlandson shows extreme anger, hatred, and discomfort towards the Indians in the narrative. She uses motifs such as “othering,” using the Indians food, style, demeanor, and religion as supporting facts to help portray the Indians as a terrible group of uncivilized savages. Using expressions like “savage” and “barbaric” to describe the Indians repetitively. Religion is also a huge part in this captivity narrative, how

She uses anything from “othering” to repetition to religion to prove the fact these Indians were savage. “Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy, Ay, even those that seem to profess more than others among them, when the English have fallen into their hands” (260). Othering directly effects the reader’s views of the Indians, reading personal accounts of horrific acts committed by Indians and eating vulgar food like horses does effect the outlook on Indians, form the reader’s perspective. Mary Rowlandson spiritually finds God during the capture and we can see the dependence start to grow for the Bible and talking to God. She strongly believes in God’s providence, thinking he was with her the whole entire trip, leading her, having a plan the whole time for things to work