Mary Rowlandson's first hand account of Indian captivity has proved an important part of understanding Puritan life, and for Mrs. Rowlandson, oneself. In a dramatic story that harks back to the details of these events, Rowlandson communicates a message to her community, as well as herself, in a variety of literary means.
             Rowlandson is able to relate to the average Puritan's experience. The factual details presented in a personal, honest method provide structure and cause empathy from the reader. Puritans can recognize their own struggles with God and inside themselves. Rowlandson gives them hope; In a Puritan point of view, Rowlandson as a fellow Puritan, a woman, and one who was saved from pending death in the hands of God, shows that he/she can also be rescued from the risks of life.
             Rowlandson begins by explaining the earthly perils that she must encounter. She conveys the disaster and anguish she endures when first captured,
             "My eldest Sister being yet in the House, and seeing those woeful sights, the Infidels hauling Mothers one way, and Children another, and some wallowing in their blood, and her elder Son telling her that her Son William was dead, and my self was wounded" (232).
             The intensity of hopelessness leads Rowlandson into severe despondency while she watches her daughter die, "My Child being even ready to depart this sorrowful world... I went with a very heavy heart, and down I sat with the picture of death in my lap" (235). From the heartlessness of the Indians to the passing away of her child, Rowlandson spells out that she is the victim. She has no one to turn to, no fellow Christians around to help her. She is alone in agony and separated from everything she knows. This shows her that the dangers on earth can only be alleviated by God. Without God, the existence on earth is full of woe.
             Rowlandson struggles to remain close with God, and believes he gives her signs to ...