Assigment 1

Mary Rowlandson Narrative of Captivity and Restoration is a true story about a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. The expert we read from the American Literature Textbook includes details about her religion and continuous faith throughout her captivity.

Mary Rowlandson was one of the thirty-seven captives held by Native Americans during the war. She believed in the Puritan religion.  The Puritans came to the New World as a business venture. The group of Protasents was seeking to purify the Church of England. They believed the spiritual world and the everyday world were intertwined. The Puritans also believed that religion was a personal and inner experience. They left England for a few reasons. One of these reasons was they believe Christian worship should be more simple and related more to the bible. By leaving the country they could for a religion that was more ideal for them. Another reason they left the Church of England was because many of the people were being persecuted. Obviously they did not want to belong or live in a society that was treating people unfairly. By leaving England the people were able to come up with their own beliefs and society. A major belief in the Puritan religion was “In Adam’s Fall, We Sinned All.”( I do not really understand what this quote means and do not want to discuss in because I do not like interperting and discussing detailed religion. But the Puritan’s believed in it. J) The Puritans believed in certain values such as self reliance and industriousness. They also believed in temperance and simplicity. The Puritain beleifs are shown through their writings. They believed the bible was a guide and model on how to live their lives. They believed by following this book God would provide and give them the tools or wisdom they needed to survive. I think this devotion to the bible, God, and their religion is shown throughout the narritive expert by Mary Rowlandson.  

Mary and her fellow captives were treated terribly while being hostages with the Native Americans. At the beginning of the expert she says, “I would rather be chose to be killed then held captive.” (Rowlandson 82).  Mary had a baby who was wounded and was taken from her on the journey. The baby ended up dying while she was in captivity. The captives were not given the approiate food wages or clothing. She and the other captives turned to God and passages in the bible during these hard times. This is prooven many times throught the expert reading including on page 85 when Mary says “So I turned to my bible (my great comforter at that time.)” I think religion is what helped Mary survive the captiviting. By being able to  believe in someone made her have hope which is why she was able to starve and lose people she loved and still come out alive.

Another poem in the American Literature Textbook relates to religion and god during the building of America. “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet is about a fire that destroyed her home and all her belongings. Because she was Puritan she believed God did this to test her and did it for a reason. She calls the fire a gift (Bradstreet 91). I think this relates to the first narrative because it really did happen and shows traits of the Puritan religion.