910 Rowlandson, Mary
stomach would turn against this or that, and
I could starve and die before I could eat such
things, yet they were sweet and savory to my
taste.The longer Rowlandson remains with her captors,
the more she becomes able to navigate the culture.
In spite of the fact that some of her captors steal ears
of corn from her store in the seventh remove, caus-
ing her much consternation and “trouble,” Rowland-
son does not express any remorse when she literally
takes food out of the mouth of an English child in
the 18th remove.
Rowlandson’s own language belies the contra-
dictions about identity within her narrative. Calling
the Narragansett, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag and
other groups derogatory names throughout the
narrative, she nonetheless accepts their sympathies,
food, and shelter when offered. In fact, her captors
treat her much better than she could have expected,
and she becomes increasingly able to function as a
part of their community, earning money, food, and
other goods for her sewing. Thus, the separation
of these two groups of people—white, English
Puritans and the American Indians—breaks down
in spite of Rowlandson’s attempts to maintain the
division.
Robin Gray Nicks
reLIGIon in The Narrative of the Captivity
and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson’s The Narrative of the Captivity
and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson functions
as a jeremiad, a text expressing God’s anger with his
chosen people over their declining morality and urg-
ing its readers to repent. Rowlandson sees her story
as symbolic of the captivity and restoration of God’s
people. From the text’s framework to her discussion
of her life as a captive, we see both reinforcement
and subtle questioning of Puritan beliefs and ideals.
Opened with a preface written by a clergyman
and closed with a sermon, the narrative’s frame of
religiosity seeks to justify and verify Rowlandson’s
story. Though Rowlandson steps into the public
arena with her narrative, the preface assures the
reader repeatedly of her piety and modesty, the most
important virtues a Puritan possessed. The closing
portion of the frame, a sermon delivered by the
author’s husband, the Reverend Joseph Rowlandson,
also works to reinforce the narrative’s piety and its
claims of the author’s captivity as the will of God.
The sermon’s title, “The Possibility of God’s Forsak-
ing a People that have been Visibly Near and Dear
to him together with the Misery of a People thus
Forsaken,” thematically ties it to the actual narrative,
while the content of the sermon preaches against
pride, a sin of which both Rowlandsons claim the
Puritan settlers were guilty.
In keeping with the religious framework, Row-
landson explains her captivity as part of God’s larger
plan: “The Lord hath shewed me the vanity of these
outward things . . . That we must rely on God him-
self, and our whole dependence must be upon him.”
She discusses her captivity as punishment for her
carelessness in her “walk with God.” Everything she
encounters she attributes to God’s will, going so far
as to attribute her captors’ successes in battle and in
eluding the English to God’s providence.
At the same time, Rowlandson subtly questions
God’s plan. Toward the end of her narrative, she
includes a list of five “passages of providence” she
observes as being of special importance. Among
these, she includes several notes about the Indians’
successes in the face of the English army’s failures.
She includes the English army’s slowness in setting
out after her captors, their inability to cross the
Baquaug River when the Indians crossed with ease,
and the Indians’ ability to survive and strengthen on
food the English’s dogs would not eat. Though she
ends each point by praising the strangeness of God’s
providence, one could easily read a bit of sarcasm in
her words. At least, the passages’ obvious question-
ing of God is striking.
Still, the embrace of piety is important in Row-
landson’s narrative. Deliberately marking a differ-
ence between herself and her captors, she clarifies
that they do not allow her to observe the Sabbath
or observe it in any way themselves. For example,
she points to her captors’ attempts to thwart her
desire to read the Bible on the Sabbath by throw-
ing her Bible outside in the dirt. This does not end
Rowlandson’s adherence to biblical instruction, and
she sneaks time to read it any time her captors are
not around.