Compare and Contrast Captivity Narratives Essay

Narratives about captivity have often intrigued readers in Western culture. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s stories helped pave the way for stereotypes within both European and white culture; teaching Europeans to see Native Americans as cruel and allowing whites to see the evil in the American slave market. In both “A Narrative of the Captivity” and “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano share their individual stories of being kidnapped and enslaved. Though the two narrators share similarities in their personal accounts of being held captive, either individual’s reaction sheds light on the true purpose of both Rowlandson and Equiano’s writing.

In her writing titled “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”, Mary lies out for the reader her experience of being held in captivity by Indians during the King Philip’s War. Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of this writing is the glimpse that the reader gets into Rowlandson’s faith and religion. Faith was a major aspect of life in the Colonial Period. It was of widespread belief that God was to be feared, and that he was the only way to redemption (Kizer). Mary Rowlandson was no different, but the extreme conditions of her captivity caused her faith to occasionally waiver. Most of the time throughout her journey in captivity, she depended on God, and the

Rowlandson was a 39-year-old Puritan mother of three when she was taken during an Indian raid on her town in 1675. Equiano was an 11-year-old African boy taken from his home by slave traders in 1756. In Mary Rowlandson's "A Narrative of the Captivity" and in Olaudah Equiano's "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," the narrators discuss their lives, their captivity journeys, and why they did not give up.

In the story “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” written by Mary Rowlandson herself, we read that she is taken captive by a group of Indians. Rowlandson was torn away from husband, children, and town. Everything she had ever known was taken away from her in an instant and she was taken to unfamiliar territory with her youngest daughter in tow. If being took captive wasn’t

When someone hears the phrase “held captive”, usually wild animals come to mind. No one ever really thinks of humans as being held captive. However, in Daniel Quinn’s 1992 novel Ishmael, the character of Ishmael tries teaching the story’s narrator to think of ways in which he has been held captive by both internal and external forces. Society has a way of making people feel like they need to do certain things to be successful, so basically society is holding people captive by holding them back from living the way they want to. As humans, we also have ways of holding ourselves captive. Ishmael compares our captivity with a form of blindness. Throughout the novel, Quinn helps the reader realize what they are blind to and what they are

​Mary Rowlandson and her kids were captured by the Indian in the year 1676. In her

“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson is a short history about her personal experience in captivity among the Wampanoag Indian tribe. On the one hand, Mary Rowlandson endures many hardships and derogatory encounters. However, she manages to show her superior status to everyone around her. She clearly shows how her time spent under captivity frequently correlates with the lessons taught in the Bible. Even though, the colonists possibly murdered their chief, overtook their land, and tried to starve the Native Americans by burning down their corn, which was their main source of food, she displays them as demonizing savages carrying out the devil's plan. There are many struggles shown

(1) The use of natural dialect can be seen throughout the slave narrative interviews through words and phrases used that were common during the period of slavery, but are not used today. One example can be seen in the dialect used by former slave Mama Duck, “Battlin stick, like dis. You doan know what a battling stick is? Well, dis here is one.” Through incomplete sentences and unknown words the natural dialect of the time can be seen. Unfamiliar words such as shin-plasters, meaning a piece of paper currency or a promissory note regarded as having little or no value. Also, geechees, used to describe a class of Negroes who spoke Gullah. Many examples can be seen throughout the “Slave Narratives”

i) Mary Rowlandson's A Narrative of the Captivity and A Restoration is a captivity narrative. Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative. While they are considered distinctive genres, they share some characteristics. Look at the excerpts you have from them in your reading. How are they similar? How are they different? Be sure to provide evidence from the texts to support your conclusions. Answer the above questions in a 1,000-1,250-word essay.

The life one treasures and takes for granted today can be so easily erased in the blink of an eye and gone tomorrow. Therefore, not only is it important to cherish how one lives for today and now, but it’s also important to how one can overcome the misfortunes and hardships they may suffer; tragedy can make a person or break a person. Mary Rowlandson’s experience during her eleven weeks of captivity as documented in “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” is a perfect answer to the above argument. The eleven weeks she experienced as a prisoner of her Indian captors proves to be a pivotal occasion in her life, which changes her feelings, lifestyle, and attitude as well towards her abductors. By the end of her horrifying experience, she rises more profoundly grounded in every way: mentally, physically, and spiritually with a new outlook on life, closer to God, and a newfound opinion of the Indians.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, sometimes spelled Salahi, has been held at the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2002. Despite the fact that he has never been charged with any crime, the United States has kept him detained here for more than thirteen years. Slahi began writing Guantanamo Diary in 2005. The manuscript, which consisted of 466 handwritten pages, remained classified for six years. When the work was finally declassified, it contained over 2,600 redactions. In the book, Slahi describes his detainment in the United States controlled detention camp to an American audience. Towards the end of the book, Slahi reflects on his captivity, writing “I often compared myself with a slave. Slaves were taken forcibly from Africa, and so was I. Slaves were sold a couple of times on their way to their final destination, and so was I. Slaves suddenly were assigned to somebody they didn’t choose, and so was I” (314). The type of slavery Slahi is referring to here is American chattel slavery, in which individuals are treated as property to be bought and sold. According to Slahi, the reason for his detention is because America “is strong enough to be unjust. And it’s not the first time you have kidnapped Africans and enslaved them” (212). His interrogators response to this claim, the “African tribes sold their people” to the United States, is ironic due to the fact that Slahi was given to the United States by his

Throughout the semester we have discussed a few captivity narratives such as: John Smith, Mary Rowlandson, and Cotton Mather. From a personal standpoint, Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative was one of the best selections we have read in class thus far. It is a prominent source of biblical encouragement to those of the Puritan religion and some other religions that put God above all human and nature. Throughout the short story, a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson, it describes the eleven weeks, approximately around eighty two days, were Rowlandson was held captive. Rowlandson demonstrates how strong her faith is throughout the entire time she was gone away from her family, losing her daughter Sarah and the problems she and the other captives had to face during that amount of time. She keeps her faith through the Lord and he delivers her prays in the end, because she stayed faithful to him.

The captivity narrative genre is not often a favorite type of literature among most students. Perhaps because of the time in which they were written, students have trouble relating to characters whom lived in a setting more than two and three hundred years ago. Although the genre receives attention in many early level American literature college courses, high school English teachers rarely—if at all—teach captivity narratives. When it is used, students perceive the captivity narrative as a historical document rather than a literary text. In other words, students do not recognize captivity narratives as literature. However, the captivity narrative deserves a place in the high school English classroom because as a genre, captivity narratives

Native- European encounters date all the way back to the early 1700’s. They’re countless stories and narratives, which focus on different details of the Native Americans, and Europeans. New England colonies were typically known for the formation and development of American literature. European colonization and territorial cross-over onto Native land, sparked many of the stories written that scholars still read, to this day. Many different themes are used to characterize the literature created during this time period. Based off of the well-known British captain, John Smith, “The New World” movie, and The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles was created. The capturing of the Christian Englishwoman, Mary Rowlandson, produced the famous narrative, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration. Readers of these stories can analyze various portrayals of the encounters of this time period. One can depict a few of the apparent themes represented such as, myth versus history and savage versus civilized. These thematic contents are shown in the narratives, General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles by John Smith, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration by Mary Rowlandson, and the 2005 movie, “The New World”, written by Terrence Malik.

Written after the climax of King Philip's war, the English name given to the leader of the Wampanoags, - an armed conflict between the First Nations inheritance of New England and English colonists - Mary Rowlandson a Puritan Women recorded her experiences as a captive. The story was the first of its kind, an ‘Indian’ captive narrative, and