The Pressure to Assimilate in Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
There are times when assimilation is not a choice but rather something is forced. In circumstances such as being taken hostage, the ability to survive must come at the price of assimilating one's own customs into another lifestyle. In February of 1675 the Native Americans who were at war with the Puritans obtained hostage Mary Rowlandson of the Plymouth colony. During this time she must perform a role that is uncommon to a colonial woman's way of life so that she may live among them. With the need to survive, how can a person accommodate a second culture? The actions of Mary Rowlandson demonstrate how a person can gain, retain, and end up examining their own beliefs for logical validity.
Due to a limited food supply in the tribe, it can't be generosity given to Rowlandson; doing so would cause the entire tribe to become hungry. Rowlandson hand makes clothes for Native Americans in exchange for essentials. She trades with her caretakers and even the well-known King of the tribe. On several occasions she argues with the Natives, attempting not to lose what is her property. Trading and arguing with others was not a job performed by women in her colony; however, in her situation, a change of role is needed in order for her to live with her captors. In the seventeenth century, her change of role might have been seen as a sign of weakness, but today, it's much easier to see her change of role as being a sign of strength; After all, it takes a strong willed person to carry out a change in their life.
An altering of one's religion alone could be a difficult task for some, but for Puritans in everyday situations...
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...lture expects her to be.
In summary, what Mary Rowlandson understands about the Native Americans changes greatly during her confinement. This change in her day-to-day life enables her to live among a Native American tribe while still being a faithful Puritan. The change in her viewpoint gives her not only an understanding of the Native culture, but also her own as well. Although it was never written that her role in the Plymouth colony changed after her return, one could speculate that she may have at least questioned her own beliefs and questioned what God may truly be looking for in a Puritan.
Works Cited:
Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." Negotiating Difference: Cultural Case Studies for Composition. Ed. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1996. 67-83.
Sports Utility Vehicles have long maintained the reputation of being gas guzzlers and detrimental to the environment. In the article, “Why Environmentalists Attack the SUV,” Mr. John Bragg presents the argument that the SUV is a symbol of Americanism. While it is easy to understand his thinking, it is largely based upon subjective reasoning. Conversely, the SUV.org article, “Environmental Double Standards for Sport Utility Vehicles,” postulates that SUV’s represent a paradox to consumers. Additionally, cartoonist, Khalil Bendib takes a drastic approach by overtly stating that American automotive corporations are directly contributing to the degradation of the environment.
In her account, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson was captured from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts by Wampanoag Indians during King Phillip’s War. She was held captive for several months. When she was released she penned her story, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. During much of her story she refers to the Indians as savage beasts and heathens but at times seems admire them and appreciate their treatment of her. Mary Rowlandson has a varying view of her Indian captors because she experienced their culture and realized it was not that different from Puritan culture.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. New York: Random House, 1975. Vintage International Edition, April 1989.
Rowlandson, Mary. “The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6 th ed., Nine Baym, General Editor. New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003.
...ve Indians. From the copious use of examples in Winthrop's work, and the concise detail in Rowlandson's narrative, one can imbibe such Puritans values as the mercy of God, place in society, and community. Together, these three elements create a foundation for Puritan thought and lifestyle in the New World. Though A Model of Christian Charity is rather prescriptive in its discussion of these values, Rowlandson's captivity narrative can certainly be categorized as descriptive; this pious young woman serves as a living example of Winthrop's "laws," in that she lives the life of a true Puritan. Therefore, both 17th century works are extremely interrelated; in order to create Winthrop's model community, one must have faith and closely follow Puritan ideals, as Rowlandson has effectively done in her A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
Rowlandson was a pure puritan and like any puritan writer, she chose to write about her religious beliefs, hardships, and God. During her captivity, which she writes about, her faith never breaks. In February of 1675, Rowlandson’s small town was invaded by Native Americans who captured twenty-four people and destroyed the town. She was separated from
“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson is a short history about her personal experience in captivity among the Wampanoag Indian tribe. On the one hand, Mary Rowlandson endures many hardships and derogatory encounters. However, she manages to show her superior status to everyone around her. She clearly shows how her time spent under captivity frequently correlates with the lessons taught in the Bible. Even though, the colonists possibly murdered their chief, overtook their land, and tried to starve the Native Americans by burning down their corn, which was their main source of food, she displays them as demonizing savages carrying out the devil's plan. There are many struggles shown during the story, both physical and emotional, but her greatest struggle is her ability to prove the satanic nature of the Indians without diminishing her reputation, but, instead, elevating herself into a martyr-like figure. From beginning to end, Mrs. Rowlandson strives to display that she is an immaculate Puritan, that within the Indian tribe and the Puritan community she has superiority, and that the Indians are barbaric creatures possessing satanic dangers.
In the Twentieth Remove the Natives agree to let her return. “I have seen the extreme vanity of this world. One hour I have been in health and wealth, wanting nothing, but the next hour in sickness and wounds and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction.”(82). Rowlandson’s time with the Natives was everything but capitity. She learned more than what most Puritans would have ever learned about the Natives lifestyle and culture. Mary Rowlandson It is safe to say that she would rather live as a Native than a Puritan but her mission was to declare what happened to her during her “grievous captivity” at the same have Puritan acceptance and she was able to shed light in many darkened areas.
Rowlandson, Mary. A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.In Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives. Ed. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
Interestingly although she feared and reviled the Indians she states that not one of them offered the least abuse of unchastity to her. Her captors never sexually molested or violated her. Rowlandson learned to adapt and strove to make it thought her captivity alive. She learned how to gather food for herself. Tolerate the ways of the Indians, and make clothes for the tribe. She even decided to stay with the Indians when given the chance to escape. “Rowlandson refused them choosing to stay put and let God choose when she was fully redeemed and ready to be released”
The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a personal account, written by Mary Rowlandson in 1682, of what life in captivity was like. Her narrative of her captivity by Indians became popular in both American and English literature. Mary Rowlandson basically lost everything by an Indian attack on her town Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1675; where she is then held prisoner and spends eleven weeks with the Wampanoag Indians as they travel to safety. What made this piece so popular in both England and America was not only because of the great narrative skill used be Mary Rowlandson, but also the intriguing personality shown by the complicated character who has a struggle in recognizing her identity. The reoccurring idea of food and the word remove, used as metaphors throughout the narrative, could be observed to lead to Mary Rowlandson’s repression of anger, depression, and realization of change throughout her journey and more so at the end of it.
Derounian, Kathryn Z. "Puritan Orthodoxy and the "Survivor Syndrome" in Mary Rowlandson's Indian Captivity Narrative." Early American Literature. 22.1 (1987): 82-93. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. .
In Mary Rowlandson, “A Captivity Narrative”, Rowlandson recounts her experiences as a captive of the Wampanoag tribe. The tribe took captives from Lancaster in 1676 because of the ongoing violent altercations between the English colonists and Native Americans during King Philip’s War. Since many of the Native Americans brethren had fallen in battle, they saw it fit to take English folk captive and use them to take the place of their fallen brethren, trading/ransom pieces, or killing them in revenge. This was becoming a common practice for the Native Americans to attack villages and in result, some English started fleeing the area or started to retaliate. Rowlandson was a Puritan wife and mother, in her
The captivity narrative is one of the first styles of literature that was ever birthed from the “new world.” This specific style of literature perfectly catered to what kind of information the folks in England were hungry for. It was real life accounts of an individual’s experience in a mysterious land that England wanted to read about. Scholars have debated whether some captivity narratives have been fabricated to adhere to what the public demanded however the majority of the narratives share the same exact traits as one another whether they are deemed trustworthy or not. The accounts of John Smith and Mary Rowlandson differ in degrees of authenticity, but both hold traits that are parallel with one another.