Mary Rowlandson Analysis

The story of Mary Rowlandson tells of a much more difficult experience than that of Hannah Duston. Mary Rowlandson narrates her own story so you know of everything she feels and thinks throughout it. However, “The Duston Family” is told by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne paints a picture of the person he thought Hannah Duston was, but, does not know what she was thinking nor feeling when she was going through her journey. This makes it much harder to understand the things she does.
The stories both start out the same, Native Americans breaking into the homes of each of the families. They caused much more damage and pain to the home of Rowlandson than that of Duston. By the time the Native Americans had made it to the Duston home, Goodman Duston had already escaped with his seven children leaving his wife and their newborn baby there to face them alone. Hannah watched her baby die and had no clue whether her other children or her husband were still alive. When the Native Americans broke into Mary’s home, she saw many of her own family die, not just one. She was holding her baby when an arrow passed through its hand and wounded both her and the baby. She was taken away and left guessing about the lives of everyone she left behind her.

The journeys both women faced were almost equally brutal, had Mary not had the extra weight of her baby to make hers even more life-threatening.

Hannah’s journey was engaged while wounded from the birth of her baby, yet, she had to keep up or she would be killed. Mary was also wounded and was forced to carry her baby until she ran out of strength on foot. Mary went on foot with the baby until she could no longer walk due to lose of strength. Then she rode on horse with no saddle and the baby on her lap. As they rode down a steep hill on the horse, they both fell over the horses head and the Native Americans, “like inhumane creature, laughed, and rejoiced to see it”

(M.R.).
Mary Rowlandson had much greater strength and faith than Hannah Duston, who was also Christian. Mary never doubted her god. She believed he was the one helping her to carry on even after she had lost all strength as she says after falling off the horse, “But the lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of his power” (M.R.). Hannah, however, thought that if she was going to survive, she had to fight. She murdered seven Native American children in return for her own children. She had not known her children had survived and had she waited longer, she may have found out. It seems as though she did not think that God would help to bring her out of the circumstances in which, she was in.
Mary shows great strength in the long amount of time she was there. She was treated very poorly at times but still found ways to survive in the Native American lifestyle. She even assimilated and started a life there until she found a way back home with her husband. Hannah shows weakness in her need for revenge against the Native Americans, having only stayed with them for a short period of time. To conclude, not only did Mary Rowlandson have a more difficult time and experience this for a longer amount of time than Hannah Duston, but, she also kept her faith and stayed strong throughout this time, whereas Hannah resorted in violence and sought revenge for the death of her children.