Artistic Merit in Mary Rowlandson's Narrative

A detailed Summary of Artistic Merit in Mary Rowlandson's Narrative

Artistic Merit in "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson"

The Puritan community lived both piously and humbly. However, the Puritans were curiously drawn to the mysterious air of the wilderness and the wild natives that inhabited the America's interior. This mix of piety and adventure greatly affects Puritan literature. The captivity-narrative becomes most popular from the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century. In many of the captivity tales, cannibalistic Indians force puritans to abandon their homes and follow them in bondage into the uncharted wilderness. The tales are designed to illustrate a moral lesson, wherein a person survives his ordeal through an unwavering faith in God. As Richard Slotkin notes, "[One person, usually a woman], stands passively under the strokes of evil, awaiting rescue by the grace of God" (47). Indeed, many narratives follow this formula. One of the most popular stories following this archetype is Mary Rowlandson's "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. In!

the narrative, Rowlandson recounts her capture by the people of Metacomet during the period known as "King Phillip's War". Throughout the story, Rowlandson describes

many sensationalistic images designed to appeal and excite the puritan mind. Conjoined with the racy images of sex, food, and violence, however, are the images of moral piety created by Rowlandson's description of God's role in the captivity (i.e. special providence). Through the sharp contrasting images, Rowlandson's captivity displays the divergent feelings of the Puritan community.

"I asked her to let me boil my piece of bear in her kettle, which she did, and gave me some ground nuts to eat it with; and I cannot think how pleasant it was to me. I have sometime seen bear baked very handsomely among the English, and some like it, but the thought that it was bear made me tremble. But now that was savory to me that one would think was enough to turn the stomach of a brute creature" (310).

Rowlandson pays specific attention to the food that she consumes during her captivity to add to the drama of the work. During her first weeks in bondage, she consumes some interesting comestibles. She observes, "On the Saturday they boiled an old horse's leg which they had got, and so we drank of the broth...it was very hard to get down the filthy trash; but the third week, though I could think how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve or die before I could eat such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste. The longer she resides with her captors, the more daring she becomes with her food consumption. When she notices the Indians with "a basket of horse liver, [she] asked them to give [her] a piece" (307). Indeed, the food becomes easier to gain. When she sees a squaw with a kettle on the ground she notes:

All of the sensationalistic aspects of the bondage culminate in her buildup of suspense and drama. One way she helps build the suspense in the story is through her incorporation the English army into the story. The English soldier always seem to be on the heels of her captors but, like many stories of her kind, never seem to catch their target. At one point the Indians decide to abruptly leave their camp. Rowlandson realizes that their rush is due to the fact that "the English army [was near] and following them" (305). Later in the journey, the English again come and nearly rescue Rowlandson from her captivity. She states, "On that very day came the English army after [the Indians] to this river [near our camp], and saw the smoke of their wigwams, and yet this river put a stop to them" (307). Later on in her bondage, the English soldiers again make their presence known but can not save Rowlandson. As the group prepares to cross a river, the Indians suddenly break up an!

Rowlandson also documents the violent and horrific images to add to the drama of the story. When the Indians ransack Rowlandson's village, she remembers, "[One man] begged of them his life, promising them money...but they would not hearke

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Approximate Word count = 1943
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History