Mary Rowlandson
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).
She is given a stolen Bible, and finds contentment in her readings, "Many and many a time have I sat down and wept sweetly over this scripture" (238). Rowlandson into severe despondency while she watches her daughter die, "My Child being even ready to depart this sorrowful world. Her narrative of captivity and restoration allowed Rowlandson to express her true emotions; to find her sense of self with-in, and with God. " She regains the spirit of survival and sees life on her own terms, "I told her I would not. She has no one to turn to, no fellow Christians around to help her. With these feelings of abandonment from God, Rowlandson begins a pattern of self-reliance, which becomes a strength rather than a weakness. Rowlandson is very realistic and honest about her journey. She reaches a spiritual low, signifying her distance from God when God's word no longer revives her, "Then also I took out my Bible to read, but I found no comfort here neither, which many times I was wont to find: So easy a thing it is with God to dry up the Streams of Scripture-comfort from us" (246). She shows their basic humanity in their particular struggle for survival. Without God, the existence on earth is full of woe. Rowlandson also realizes human experiences outside of God. "Being very hungry I had quickly ate up mine, but the Child could not bite it, it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand; then I took if of the Child, and eat it my self, and savoury it was to my taste" (251). I went with a very heavy heart, and down I sat with the picture of death in my lap" (235).
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Acceptance Essays
