Mary Rowlandson wrote about her life in captivity in her story, A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Mary, along with three of her children, was captured and taken by the Wampanoag Indians. The group took twenty-four innocent people from this one area. The twenty-four were out of the thirty-seven that stayed alive. The other thirteen people were wounded or killed by the Wampanoag warriors. "There were twelve killed, some shot, some stabbed with their spears, some knocked down with their hatchets" (). Mary was one of the lucky ones whose lives were spared. She had a rough life in captivity with little to no food. Food is such an important necessity in life which helps you to be able to function. Luckily, Mary had vast knowledge of sewing and knitting, and to her advantage, probably was what kept her alive. Her creations helped her to barter and get more food. All throughout her captivity, she stayed true to her religion and never gave up on God. In the end, Mary Rowlandson was rescued after around four months under the Wampanoag captivity when her husband, Reverend Joseph Rowlandson paid the ransom money.
In her story, Rowlandson talks about her relationship with God and how He was the one that kept her going. In the first paragraph of the story, Mary includes two excerpts from the Bible. "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he has made in the earth" and "And I only am escaped alone to tell the news" (Rowlandson 82). After reading those two verses, I knew that it was going to about God. One other thing that I noticed, was that it would relate to the writings of the Puritans'.
The second work we had to read was “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet. This poem was about her house burning down in the middle of the night. Bradstreet was frightened by this event while she watched all of her personal belongings and her home burn to the ground and become piles of ashes. Through this troubling disaster, Anne prayed and asked for his strength.
A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and “Upon the Burning of Our House” reflected some qualities of the Puritans' writings. The Puritans' were very spiritual people and in whatever they wrote, God was a major part of it. They believed that the Bible was made up of God's actual words. The Puritans' liked their writing to be simple without beating around the bush using figures of speech. Sometimes when told to read a story with figure's of speech, it can be hard to understand the first time you read it. In both of these stories, they are easy to read because of the lack of figures of speech. Most of the writings that were said to be by the Puritans' were diaries and personal stories. In these works, the Puritan authors wrote about the works of God. Both authors of the two works of art I read displayed these above qualities of the Puritans' writings. "But God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit" (Rowlandson 83). "And to my God my heart did cry to strengthen me in my distress" (Bradstreet 91).
Field, Nancy. A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Glencoe Literature American Literature: The Reader's Choice. [S.l.]: Glencoe Mcgraw-Hill Schoo, 2003. 82-85. Print.
Field, Nancy. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Glencoe Literature American Literature: The Reader's Choice. [S.l.]: Glencoe Mcgraw-Hill Schoo, 2003. 91. Print.
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