Entry 1

Mary Rowlandson Captivity Narrative and John Winthrop’s Utopian Promise

       Mary Rowlandson was a puritan goodwife who tended to her home and children. In 1676, during King Philips war, a contingent of Narraganset Indians attacked and burred Lancaster, killing 17 people and taking 24 captive, which included M.Rowlandson. She lived among the Indians for 11 weeks and survived a journey of 150 miles.

     This incident is the basis of Rowlandson account of her captivity among the Indians. Her tale shaped the conventions of the captivity narrative, which was very popular since its inception in the 17^th century and which is an example of a jeremiad. Since Puritans believed that Native Americans were nothing less than “agents of Satan”, her experience among them was a useful tool for them to diminish their culture, which they did. However, Mary Rowlandson herself said that she composed her narrative out of gratitude for her deliverance from captivity and in the hopes of conveying the spiritual meaning of her experience to the other Puritans. Although they were strongly against Native Americans, the Puritans’ main objective was to prove that their religion was the best one and that they had proof of it through Rowlandson’s story.

My reading on Mary Rowlandson’s story

         When I knew that I was going to read a real story about someone who was made captive by Native Americans’ I got really thrilled. But when I finished reading the story, I had a mixture of feelings, especially towards Mary Rowlandson herself, but I decided that I should not judge someone without knowing much about her. Then I thought about what our teacher said – in the first place, she wrote this when she was released and not during her tragic captivity experience. Secondly the teacher told us about the possibility about Rowlandson being influenced by Puritans (which includes her husband) while writing her experiences. These are important facts or at least a clue for me to understand why she used far too many biblical references. That was the first thing I noticed throughout the story and I actually think that it made it seem less tragic and at a certain point a bit ridiculous.  Because of the numerous biblical references we can understand to what extent the Puritans where fanatical about their religion and how badly they wanted to prove it was the best one, through this real life story.