Nicole Mills Erik Grayson American Literature 1 29 February 2024 Faithful Resilience Through her powerful faith and resilience, Mary Rowlandson in "A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration" powerfully displays how the human spirit can endure and thrive even in the most challenging circumstances. Written in 1682, the narrative recounts Rowlandson's intense trial as a captive during King Philip's War. While the narrative is based on real events, it recounts more than just Rowlandson’s experience, for it indulges in themes such as resilience, faith, cultural exchange, and the struggle to maintain one's sense of self while under captivity. Rowlandon’s writing style is distinguished by her spirit, meticulousness, and expressive language. Utilizing …show more content…
For instance, when reflecting on her spiritual journey during captivity, Rowlandson writes, "The first day of the week, which was the Sabbath, I usually set apart for my devotions: and that day I enjoyed some good hours, in prayer and meditation" (Rowlandson 32). This imagery of spiritual devotion and connection with a higher power highlights Rowlandson's unwavering faith and the role of religion as a guiding force in her life. Additionally, Rowlandson's use of religious imagery to depict moments of religious intervention further emphasizes the significance of faith in her narrative. When recounting her miraculous escape from captivity, Rowlandson writes, "Thus were we at this time, as it were, filled with astonishment, seeing wonderful works of God" (Rowlandson 67). This image illustrates how her belief in a higher power sustains her through even the darkest of times. Through this imagery, Rowlandson evokes empathy and emotion within her readers. In addition to illustrating the terrain surrounding her, Rowlandson's narrative is filled with imagery that vividly conveys the emotional and psychological toll of her …show more content…
Rowlandson's use of sensory details, such as the inability to shed tears, captures the profound impact of her captivity on her emotional state, revealing how trauma can dull even the most visceral of human emotions. Similarly, when reflecting on the uncertainty of her fate, Rowlandson describes her feelings of despair, stating, "I looked on it as a death's head upon the ground" (Rowlandson 35). This metaphor highlights the existential dread that permeates Rowlandson's experience, as she grapples with the uncertainty of her fate and the loss of control over her own life. By diving into the emotional and psychological imagery of Rowlandson's narrative, readers gain a deeper understanding of the profound impact of her experience on her mentality and how she navigates the complex terrain of her emotions in the face of adversity. Furthermore, Rowlandson's narrative employs imagery to depict the transformation of her identity and sense of self throughout her captivity. As she struggles with the challenges of captivity, Rowlandson undergoes a deep internal journey, confronting questions of identity and
Mary Rowlandson was an Indian captive, and also an American writer. She was born in England approximately 1637-1638. She immigrated to Lancaster, Massachusetts with her parents. Joseph Rowlandson became a minister in 1654 and two years later he married Mary. They together had four children, one whom died as an infant, but the others were Joseph, Mary, and Sarah.
Mary Musgrove was a very influential woman of her time. Her heritage of both Native American and English blood gave her the perfect advantage for prosperity in the time period in which she lived. She had a great impact on the state of Georgia as an interpreter, a trading post owner, and a tribe member.
Although two different authors wrote these works of literature, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and From Africa to America, both stories possessed similar and different elements of writing. These tales were worthy of comparing because they had various things to review, contrast, and realize, such as the worship they had or didn’t have for God, their experiences, and their styles. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano were remarkable writers whose works will always be a part of America’s history for the various styles and purposes they had to share with their readers.
Mary MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne on January the 15th 1842. She was the first child to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Mary was one child out of 8 and spent most of her childhood years looking after and acting like a second mother to her siblings. The MacKillop family were quite poor so at the young age of 14, Mary got herself a job as a governess and as teacher at a Portland school. All the money Mary earned went towards her families everyday living. While working as a governess, Mary met Father Julian Tension Woods. By the time Mary had reached the age of 15 she had decided that she wanted to be a nun. She also wanted to devote her life to the poor and less fortunate. So upon meeting Father Julian Tension Woods she told him her hopes and dreams, and together they decided to set up a school. In 1861, they worked together and opened Australia's first free Catholic school. At the time only the rich could afford schooling. But at the school Mary opened anyone was welcome. Mary was a great teacher and became very popular within the community. Although Mary was very pleased with her work she still felt a religious calling. So Mary and Father Woods started their own order, 'The Sisters of St. Joseph.' In 1867 Mary then moved to Adelaide where she opened another school. Before long there were 17 schools open across Australia. Mary's followers grew and by 1909 she had followers all over Australia. Mary later died on the 8th of August 1909.
One of the leading black female activists of the 20th century, during her life, Mary Church Terrell worked as a writer, lecturer and educator. She is remembered best for her contribution to the struggle for the rights of women of African descent. Mary Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee at the close of the Civil War. Her parents, former slaves who later became millionaires, tried to shelter her from the harsh reality of racism. However, as her awareness of the problem developed, she became an ardent supporter of civil rights. Her life was one of privilege but the wealth of her family did not prevent her from experiencing segregation and the humiliation of Jim Crow laws. While traveling on a train her family was sent to the Jim Crow car. This experience, along with others led her to realize that racial injustice was evil. She saw that racial injustice and all other forms of injustice must be fought.
Rowlandson watches as her family members are killed and kidnapped by Indians. At the beginning of her story she says she used to think she would rather be killed than taken captive by Indians, but when the time comes, she changes her mind and is taken by the “ravenous beasts,” (238). Rowlandson has never been around Indians. She knows only what she has been told about Indians, which is to fear and hate them, because they are savages. She feels she is being taken from civilization into the wilderness.
In the fall of 1743, somewhere on the stormy Atlantic, a child was born to Thomas and Jane Jemison aboard the ship William and Mary. The little baby girl was named Mary, and although she was not aware of it, she was joining her parents and brothers and sisters on a voyage to the New World.
“This passage describes the narrator’s spiritual nadir, and may be said to represent her transition from conscious struggle against the daylight world to her immersion in the nocturnal world of unconscious-or, in other terms, from idle fancy to empowering imagination” (Johnson 525). Which was supported when Jane attempted to fight the urge to engage in her unconscious state. “And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder – I begin to think- I wish John would take me away from here!” (Gilman 92). This exhibits the struggle Jane was facing while trying to maintain her conscious state of mind. However, John felt that if she was taken out of her environment she would go crazy, which ironically led to her slow decline into the unconscious mind. “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman 89). It was here that Jane began giving human characteristics to inanimate objects. As Gilman’s story continues, Jane gradually becomes more entranced by her imagination. “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes” (Gilman 94). Displaying the idea that Jane was immersed in her unconscious world, validating the Johnson’s argument that Jane progressively develops into her unconscious mind throughout the
Though, acceptance of trauma can allow hindered development, eventually allowing full self-acceptance. Bernice, a once strong woman has been verbally, emotionally and physically abused since her childhood. Resulting in a loss of her sense of being. Within the beginning of the novel, when she is reflecting on her past memories, it becomes clear to the reader that in order for her to be able to accept herself, she needs to surface her past traumas. Bernice explains that, “In the tendrils, Bernice realizes there is remorse in her body and she is trying to kick it out. Her shell rejects remorse. Shame. Feeling bad over feeling good” (49). This mindset is negative and expresses her inability to share her emotions due to previous emotional abuse from her family and the many men that have taken advantage of her. This idea of disallowing happiness hinders her ability to accept herself and her past actions. However, through more time of self-reflection (over 200 hundred pages of her lying in bed with the author switching perspectives, confusing the hell out of me lol) Bernice realizes that she must learn to cope with these traumas and attempt to have a positive outlook on life. As Bernice is accepting the damaged part of herself, she comes to the realization that, “She can feel her body now, its loose and stiff at the same time. Her head, though will be the hard part. Part of her lost for so long that it is hard to enunciate what, exactly, she has found” (228). In comparison to when Bernice was unable to acknowledge her feelings and thoughts, it is now clear that she is slowly learning to manage her issues. By Bernice discovering that she is beginning to acknowledge her thoughts, this is the first step to being able to accept one’s self. In Total, It is shown that Bernice is deeply affected by the trauma within her life, however she is able to
Mary Rowlandson wrote a narrative about hardships she faced during her captivity, in a journal. Despite her suffering she thanked God for her life and his mercy. Rowlandson wrote during the colonial period and is an example of a puritan writer for many reasons.
She wrote how she tried to acknowledge the Sabbath day while in captivity. “I told them it was the Sabbath day and desired them to let me rest, and told them I would do as much more tomorrow, to which they answered me they would break my face” (Rowlandson)
Right from the moment Louise Mallard hears of her husband's death, Kate Chopin dives into a her vivid use of imagery. “When the storm of grief has spent itself” introduces a weather oriented theme (para.3). This imagery depicts a violent and dark setting that denotes death and grief. Her reaction to her husband's death ideally what society would expect. Her acute reaction instantly shows that she is an emotional, demonstrative woman. Even tho...
In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment heralded the beginning of Margaret Walker’s literary career which spanned from the brink of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s to the cusp of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became a prominent voice in the African-American community. Her writing, especially her signature novel, Jubilee, exposes her readers to the plight of her race by accounting the struggles of African Americans from the pre-Civil War period to the present and ultimately keeps this awareness relevant to contemporary American society.
Because of their Puritanical beliefs, it is no surprise that the major theme that runs throughout Mary Rowlandson and Jonathan Edwards’s writings is religion. This aspect of religion is apparent in not only the constant mentions about God himself, but also in the heavy use of biblical scriptures. In their respective writings, Rowlandson and Edwards utilize scripture, but for different purposes; one uses it to convey that good and bad events happen solely because of God’s will, and the other uses it, in one instance, to illustrate how it brought him closer to God, and, in another instance, to justify his harsh claims about God’s powerful wrath.
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her