Mary Rowlandson
Mary RowlandsonPuritan and Indian cultures collide in Mary Rowlandson’s ” A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” This is a Puritan woman’s account of her captivity during the King James’s War in the Indian raid on Lancaster, Massachusetts. A leading Indian family held her in captivity for eleven weeks before she is returned to her husband. She wrote about her experiences, she describes traveling from one “remove” to another with her Indian master, experiencing hard work and a cold environment.
When an author begins a piece of literature they must address an audience. Rowlandson’s work seems to prove no different in which she took extreme care to keep her religious audience content. Upon analyzing this piece of literature, it becomes apparent at the detail use of typology referring to the Puritans taking recently effects and relating that to events that took place in early scripture and how her beliefs effected her view of her heavenly world and that of the Indians.
The use of typology appears during the Indian attack in the beginning of the diary. One person out of the thirty seven people in one house escapes and Mary exclaims, “and I only am escaped alone to tell the News” which refers to the suffering a survivor endures from an attack. She assumes the survivor knowing that he alone survives the Indian attack. During the third remove she finds herself among a large number of Indians that causes her to make another statement that was a comparison made between her and David. She appears to find it extremely difficult to imagine the Indians as civilized and living in communities of their own. It seems easier for her mind to accept that they are savages and band together only at the devil’s will to attack god’s chosen people. In the fifth remove she states, “ oh that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.”
Throughout the diary, she appears to believe that the primary reason for the Indians success is to punish the Puritans for not living the life God wants them to live and that God is apparently testing her belief by showing her the similarities of the Israelites plights and her own. Once she becomes aware of these similarities, the trials or ordeals become easier for her to deal with because she is familiar with the testament and believes that in the end she will triumph if she places herself in God’s hands.
Mary Rowlandson’s perception is the Puritans are living a devout life while the devil uses the Indians to tempt and corrupt the Puritans and the paradise world in which she lives. In the initial attack she refers to them as “bloody heathens” alluding to their apparent bloodlust as they attack her town. The Indians reinforce the fact that they are, in her eyes, the devil on earth by their ritual on the first night celebrating their victory over the Puritans. Rowlandson convinces herself that the Indians transform the woods into a hell.
Through Rowlandson’s religious beliefs she believes that the Puritans are the newly chosen people. Even though she understood that all men and woman were not considered equal. Woman ruled over children and servants. She due to her husband’s statue had her place in the Puritan society and was of the class. The world in which Rowlandson knew prior to her captivity was peaceful, tranquil, and comfortable. The paradise world of Rowlandson soon becomes interrupted by the Indians attack on her town. The thought of blood shed and turmoil was sickening to her mind yet to witness it was all too horrific. Rowlandson’s world was soon taking away from her captivity by the Indians. Rowlandson’s life is that in which one must believe in the Puritan way or you are following or abiding by the devil. The Indians are in Rowlandson’s mind, the evil in her world.
As far as the Puritan community was concerned, the Indians, no matter what tribe, were considered savages. As beasts that roamed the wilderness, these “Godly” people feared Indians. The demeanor and tone, Rowlandson utilizes in her narrative to describe the Indians range from “savages’ to “barbarous creatures.” She has no regard for them as humans and it begins even more apparent during he captivity. The referral to them as savages and bound together at the devil’s will is placed throughout the narrative. She states in her narrative that she finds it extremely difficult to imagine the Indians as civilized and living in communities of their own. Rowlandson’s Puritan views are all too apparent in her comments. Nevertheless, prior to and during her captivity, she has little regard for the Indians as human beings.
While Rowlandson’s village is under attack she and her family are forced to exit their homes. Bloodshed and turmoil are transpiring in front of her eyes. She speaks of her relatives and friends dying. Her sister who witnessed her family die in front of he eyes and asks the Lord to take her life. No sooner did she state that then she to died. Rowlandson initial affirmation of death is stated in her narrative as “… I hope she is reaping the fruit of her good labours, being faithful in the service of God in her place.” Rowlandson’s puritan view is stated so clearly in this statement. God rewards you for having faith.
In the paradise world of Rowlandson, she is rudely interrupted by the Indians and her captivity she states in her narrative that the Indians “… at length… came and beset our house and quickly, it was the dolefeullest day that ever mine eyes saw…” Rowlandson’s worst nightmare is about to take place. She is now living through a war in which she feels the consequences of each side’s actions. The thought of captivity to Rowlandson was dreadful. She tells the Indians “…. they would kill me: they answered, if I were willing to go along with them, they would not hurt me.” Unlike Rowlandson’s sister, Mary regards her life as precious. She can still go on she has her family and her health. Unlike her sister she still has much to live.
What is interesting to note is that even though Rolandson was a status member of her community it was not acceptable in her time for woman to write on theological issues. She does these through acceptable genre in writing a personal narrative on her captivity and combines God place in her life and the Puritan community. One could consider this piece of literature as romantic. It’s a story, a conversational narrative, which accordingly Puritans read to reaffirm their faith. One interpretation could be that Rowlandson asserted her authority and opinion on a range of Puritan beliefs through her work by choosing an acceptable genre as a personal narrative.
Rowlandson describes how the Puritan women were used to a less strenuous lifestyle, one with “greater creature comforts” in comparison to how the Indians lived. She comments on their food as “filthy trash.” The comparison of the Indians lives to the Puritans lives by Rowlandson exploits her religious beliefs as to their status to her as “savages.”
The conflicts seem to become more apparent as Rowlandson’s Removes continue. She is in conflict with her view of the “savages” on her world and the reaffirmation of her religion to deal with the turmoil at hand. It is her beliefs in the tenets that help her to survive the test of faith.
Although these negative titles are numerous, Rowlandson does show some examples of gratefulness to the Indians. In her second Remove, she says, “One of the Indians carried my poor wounded Babe upon a horse.” She later states “…and there being no furniture upon the horses back, as we were going down the step hill, we both fell over the horses head, at which they like inhumane creatures laught, and rejoyced to see it, though I thought we should have ended our dayes, as overcome with many difficulties” Rowlandson claims to rather be left for dead than let the Indians watch her suffer. She does, however, lives and ends up surviving this ordeal, despite the suicidal claims made to the audience.
Another scene “One of the Indians that came from Medfield fight had brought some plunder, came to me and asked me, if I would have a Bible, he had got one in his Basket. I was glad of it and asked him, whether he thought the Indians would let me read? He answered, yes.” In this passage, many things contradict themselves from the Puritanical line of thought. First, Rowlandson makes it a point to state that this “heathen” came all the way from a battle, with a basket of supplies, to offer her a Bible. He went out of his way for her, something one of Puritan beliefs would never admit openly. Secondly, he brought her a Bible. However, despite this, she never gives thanks or shows any sign of gratitude for what the Indian had done for her. I am not sure if she is aware of the fact that she is in fact allowing the reader of the story to see the indians as human not savages.
Rowlandson even encounters praying Indians during her captivity. During her nineteenth Remove she recounts, “There was another Praying Indian, who told me, that he had a brother, that would not eat Horse, his conscience was so tender . . . “. Stating this, Rowlandson acknowledges that these “savages” have a conscience. However, this is not the end of her quotation. She continues to say, ” . . . and scrupulous (though as large as hell, for the destruction of poor Christians).” Every instance Rowlandson tries to make a considerate comment toward the Indians.
Incorporating the sermon through references from the Bible can be found in every Remove, sometimes even two or three times within one Remove. Most of the citations she quotes from the Good Book are based on the message of God’s grace and how His mercy is the driving force behind her survival. In the final paragraph of the fifth Remove, Rowlandson describes how the Indians, no matter how sick, old, or tired they may be, still had the strength to press on. She states, “And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen . . . “. Rowlandson does not understand why God gives them the energy to continue the barbaric battles and torturous traveling.
Rowlandson’s conclusion to her narrative seems to only enhance her Puritian beliefs of the Indians. She states, “I have seen the extrem 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.” Through this, one sees her Puritan society has forced her into a comfortable, sheltered lifestyle, a paradise world. This lifestyle does not require her to “want” anything that she now sees as truly valuable. Through her Removes, however, she has witnessed pain and death, causing her to want “something.”
In conclusion, the Puritan tenets although extreme are proven successful to Rowlandson, giving her a foundation upon which to build her hopes of eventual freedom in an otherwise hopeless situation Mary Rowlandson’s belief in the tenets helps her to survive the tests of faith that God chooses for her over the eleven weeks. Throughout her diary, she makes no real positive references to the Indians even when they display acts of kindness, yet is quick to point out the cruelties or injustices they commit upon her or the Puritans. The world in which Rolandson knew prior to captivity has changed traumatically. Her beliefs of the Indians as “savages” and “barbarous creatures” holds still true from the beginning of the narrative to the end. Through he Puritan beliefs she views her experience with the Indians as a reminder that faith and submission to god was the answer to her salvation.
Work Cited:
Rowlandson, Mary. “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” Rpt. In The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. I
Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998. 297-329.