Self-Preservation In Mary Rowlandson's Captivity

118 Words1 Pages
Throughout Mary Rowlandson's captivity, her personality seems to change, both by gaining a sense of self-preservation and by becoming more calloused and cold to regular human emotion. This newfound sense of self-preservation is seen when Mary takes a horse's foot from an English child being held captive and feeling no shame for having taken it. One sees she has become cold and calloused when her mistress's baby dies, and Mary is almost happy about it because the baby's death means that Mary can sleep in the tent. At the beginning of the narrative, Mary cares about others and feels normal human emotions, but her personality makes a drastic change because she has to cope with being held