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Mary Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative

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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 …show more content…

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

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Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano: Comparing Captivity Experiences Americans have been intrigued by captivity novels and works for centuries. It could be the sense of danger and unpredictability that makes them so interesting and popular. Or maybe the idea that captivity was quite possible for readers in previous centuries made captivity narratives popular in Colonial Times. Speaking of Colonial Times, two popular captivity narratives that took place in that era that have many similarities and differences are; A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

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Captivity stories have become a popular genre throughout the American culture. The idea has gained popularity because America’s history with captivity has left unforgettable memories for all Americans. Stories like A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano have become very popular because of this. Although there are many differences between these stories, they both are similar in one way or another.

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Throughout Mary Rowlandson’s “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration,” Rowlandson repeatedly makes mention to the idea of Puritan dominance over Native Americans. Rowlandson exemplifies this through the use of harsh diction, imagery, and biblical allusions. Rowlandson employs these methods in order to create a chasm between her people, the Puritans, and her captors, the Native Americans. Throughout the text, Rowlandson paints the Puritan community as “God’s chosen people,” justifying their forceful taking of Native land that lead to the onset of King Philip’s war. Ironically, many of Rowlandson’s techniques unintentionally portray her as more savage and immoral than her Native captors.

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Within ‘Mean Girls’ (2004), Regina George’s construction offers a representation of teenagers as being insecure through the use of dialogue, setting and body language. Regina is obsessively trying to look for foods that have ‘less than 30% of calories from fat’ as she mentions that she wants to lose ‘three pounds.’ Regina is putting effort into trying to seek validation and trying to fit into the society’s narrow beauty standards. Regina is looking at every food label to make sure that she doesn’t eat too much, which will make her gain weight. This suggests that she is insecure about her weight and what people might think of her.

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Religion was a part of daily life in the Colonial period, Rowlandson and de Vaca are excellent examples of this because regardless of what they were going through they thought of God. Even though Rowlandson and de Vaca were not the same religion and lived in slightly different times they both had similar storys and were able to bring us two fascinating novel. While Mary Rowlandson and Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca were not perfect Christians, they are humans who made mistakes. God put them in these situations to make them better Christians. What we learn from them is even if you have struggled in your devotion of your faith if you devote yourself again to God, he will help you through hard

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Megan Rochelle Professor Devin Pizzino English 10 November 2015 Title The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a personal account, written by Mary Rowlandson in 1682. In her accounts, Rowlandson tells the readers of what life in captivity was truly like for her. Mary Rowlandson ultimately lost everything by an Indian attack on her town of Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1675.

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Allen Dwight Callahan’s The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible connects biblical stories and images to the politics, music and, religion, the book shows how important the Bible is to black culture. African Americans first came to know the Bible because of slavery and at that time the religious groups would read it to them instead of teaching them by letting them encounter it for themselves. Later the Bibles stories became the source of spirituals and songs, and after the Civil War motivation for learning to read. Allen Callahan traces the Bible culture that developed during and following enslavement. He identifies the most important biblical images for African Americans, Exile, Exodus, Ethiopia, and Emmanuel and discusses their recurrence and the relationship they have with African Americans and African American culture.

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Such stories were regularly utilized as promulgation or propaganda: accordingly, Europeans frequently stereotyped Native Americans as merciless and whites started to see subjugation of African-Americans as detestable. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the two narratives which are A Narrative of the Captivity and The interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equianoa. A Narrative of Captivity by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano are two generally read imprisonment accounts , which, individually, relate the encounters of a grown-up white lady caught by Indians and an eleven-year-old Black male caught for the American slave market. Looking at these two accounts uncovers fascinating similitudes and contrasts and in addition in the encounters and responses of these two prisoners.

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Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a text that describes the experiences of Mary Rowlandson during her captivity by the Native Americans in the King Phillips war. The details about the capture which took place in 1676 are recorded in her diary accounts which were written a few years after she was released. The captivity lasted about eleven weeks and is accounted in the diaries. Rowlandson specifically believes that her experiences were related to the Bible and that the capture was a trial from God which she had to endure in order to survive and remain a true Christian woman who is suitable for the then puritan society (Harris 12).

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A woman’s place in Puritan society was very limited during these times. A preface was added to her narrative by a puritan pastor as approval for her to publish her prose. Before her captivity Rowlandson didn’t know what a struggle consisted of. She was the typical housewife in a Puritan society. She never went without food, shelter, or clothing before her captivity.

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Food is an essential thing needed to survive. In A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson; Rowlandson faced many challenges that she had to overcome. During her captivity, her biggest challenge was finding food every day. Her captors’ food was different compared to the food she was used to in her Puritan society in Europe. This forced her to adapt to her captors’ eating habits if she wanted any food.

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Analyzing Captivity Stories: How Different Tones Support Different Themes In A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Mary Rowlandson retells her story as a captive of the Wampanoag Indians. In Louise Erdrich’s poem “Captivity”, Erdrich responds to Rowlandson by telling a story about a captive of a Native American tribe through the eyes of the captive. Throughout their stories, both authors utilize diction to produce a specific tone that conveys their overall theme. Through analysis of both authors’ diction choice, it is evident that Rowlandson’s hopeful tone supports her theme of exclusive belief in God, whereas Erdrich’s desperate tone supports her message that beliefs are susceptible to change.

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During the colonial period many settlers came to the New World to escape persecution for their Puritan beliefs. Writers such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson all shared their experiences and religious devotion throughout their literature that ultimately inspired and influenced settlers to follow. This essay will discuss the similarities in Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson’s work as they both describe their experiences as signs from God. Anne Bradstreet came to the New World as a devoted Puritan as she repeatedly talked about it in her poetry. In her poems she discusses many tragedies that happened in her life such as; the burning of her house and the death of her two grandchildren all of which she thinks were signs from God.

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Captivity is defined as the state of being imprisoned or confined. A tragic experience is given a whole new perspective from Louise Erdrich 's poem, “Captivity”. Through descriptive imagery and a melancholic tone, we can see the poem and theme develop in her words. Erdrich takes a quote from Mary Rowlandson’s narrative about her imprisonment by the Native Americans and her response to this brings readers a different story based off of the epigraph. Louise Erdrich compiles various literary devices to convey her theme of sympathy, and her poem “Captivity” through specific and descriptive language brings a whole new meaning to Mary Rowlandson’s narrative.

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“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson”: The Influence of Intercultural Contact on Puritan Beliefs “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson gives a first person perspective into the circumstances of captivity and cultural interaction and an insight to Rowlandson 's attitude towards the Indians, both before and after she was held captive. Rowlandson displays a change in her perception of "civilized" and "savage", in spite of the fact that her overall world view does not alter. It should be covered below that in the following Essay, since the author and the narrator are the same person, will not be individually distinguished. For one thing, Mary Rowlandson provides all the conventions typical of a Puritan perspective.

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