The United States

When comparing Mary Rowlandson with Jonathan Edwards they both have an understanding of who Jesus Christ is, but differ on their views on how to live their earthly lives. I would have to say that Rowlandson faith showed a raw and relevant relationship with God. While she was being held in captivity by the American Indians, she was able to find comfort in her faith, Mary is able to pull memorized verses from out from her head to bring her peace, which to me showed that she knows and understands the Bible and God. She was also given a Bible from one of the Indians, which helped her tremendously as she experienced a terrifying part of her life. On page 53, the last page of Mary’s bibliography happened to be my favorite part of her journey.

She often visited hospitals and homes where the poor and sick were found. Her activities quickly attracted followers who helped her in her mission to serve the poor and sick.

As Mary’s story unravels, she continues to suffer long hours of work, starvation, and separation from her family. She reads her holy bible and is constantly reminding herself that God is with her and will see her through these trials. Her spirits are lifted her master agrees to sell Mary to her husband, and her mistress begins the journey with her, but before long the mistress decides not to go any further and they turn back. Not long after, she starts to loose hope that she will ever be reunited with her family. She becomes discouraged, and her spirit

She even ended up with a child along the way. A native woman gave her a girl when she stopped at a bar along the roadside. All of these events were drastic changes in the way that she lived her life, but they all turned out for the better.

Cultures using hyphenated forms of “American,” such as Mexican-American, African-American, Asian-American, Native-American and many more is a step in the right direction for culture acceptance. With this positive move in the world, there could be a change in how cultures view themselves, leading to how others view them. The multicultural society has to take into account for this change because without their acceptance it would just be hate. Bharati Mukherjee in her essay “American Dreamer,” asserts, “WE MUST BE ALERT TO THE DANGERS OF AN ‘US’ vs. ‘THEM’ MENTALITY.” Although Mukherjee has a great point here, I have to disagree. I don’t feel that we have to be aware of the ‘US’ versus ‘THEM’ mentality with the change in cultural acceptance.

She stood up to her family and gave them a strong person they could believe and rely on; she organized her family back into their normal actions. Her father then started to rally the Tutsi people who gathered for his guidance to fight against the people who attacked them, whether it is the government or the Interahamwe, which was a Hutu militia.

Her son showed up shortly after and they were able to be together again and comfort each other (76). On page 78 God gives Mary comfort through a passage she finds in the book of Jeremiah in the bible. Later, she described herself as blessed because she was the only Christian captive left in the tribe (80). She continued to rejoice at every opportunity she was given and on page 84, while going to visit her son, she gets lost in the woods. Even though she could not find him, she still praised God for keeping her

During their “removes,” Mary becomes too weak to walk any longer, and the Indians, “like inhuman creatures, laugh and rejoice to see it.”They do nothing to provide for her comfort during their long journeys through the rough landscape. Her only refuge is to take comfort in her prayer and hope that God will help her through these hard times. After the first several days, Mary develops a dependency upon the Indians, and begins to get used to their means of living.

A year later she was able to move to the U.S. Just before her and her family were about to leave her grandfather tells her “America is a Christian country. People will expect you to become a Christian. Your mother and I want you to know that, if you decide to become a Christian, you will still be our daughter and we will still love you.” While in the U.S. she began to attend Sunday school and was learning about Jesus. Soon after she met a girl named Joy Clark and became close friends with her.

She started to look and things a lot differently. In my eyes she helped a lot of people out without a care in the world. Mary Baker was often called on to cure cases physicians had given up. People looked up to her so much and at time she uses to be hurt because she couldn’t help. At all times she wrote everything in her book to expand into her primary.

Although both endured frightful and heart-wrenching ordeals, and witnessed unfathomable cruelty and violence during their journeys, they were able to grow spiritually. They also came out with a better understanding of people unlike themselves, and possibly a certain amount of respect, such as when Mary was in awe of the way the Indians made use of certain animals and plants for food, that her people would never dream of eating. Both Equiano and Mary were thankful to God for the experiences He put them through, and felt that it was His will for them to go through such things in order to get where they needed to be spiritually. It gave them a greater appreciation for their freedom, as well as new perspective on what really matters in life. Mary stated, “If trouble from smaller matters begin to arise in me, I have something at hand to check myself with, and say, why am I troubled?” (Rowlandson 514). When compared to what she went through, all other problems are

Mary composed the details of twenty separate removes (migration between places) that she spent among the Indian’s during her captivity. It is not until the Twentieth Remove that Mary reveals her final opinion of her captures and her faith. Previously,

In this poem she is clearly stating that she was removed from her “Pagan Land” which is Africa, to be relocated in a place where there was much criticism and racial segregation. She was taught the ways of Christian belief and she implies that through God’s mercy she was able to overcome. She believed that God would not turn his back on her and that he would comfort through the trials she faced in the society in which she lived.

Accordingly, the narrative contains both literal and symbolic dimensions. Before the attack on her village and her capture by the Native Americans, She lived a blissful and pleasurable life with her family. She had a nice home, comfortable furnishing, and ate the best of foods. Although Rowlandson’s husband was a minister and she was a Christian, she did not feel she lived her life as devoted or committed, as she should be; she could have prayed more or been more devoted

The United States continues to be in the spotlight, especially during an election year and specifically when it comes to immigration. Most recently I was intrigued by an article I read, titled “ Article“that talked about the unprecedented number of unaccompanied children crossing our U.S. Borders illegally. What began as an intriguing subject that sparked my interest evolved into a desire to expand my knowledge on the subject of immigration, particularly these unaccompanied children crossing our borders? The article for all intent and purposes shed some light on the subject matter by providing numbers and statistics, however; it also left me with a plethora of unanswered questions regarding the livelihood of these lost children of our borders. What this article failed to mention is, what would prompt families to send their children, some as young as toddlers to an unknown country where the risk for their welfare is a precarious one at best and the barriers of language alone are substantial. Where are these children coming from and what transpires once they reach U.S. territory? Are they returned to their respective countries and what factors determine whether they are deported or are permitted to remain in the United States? Who assumes responsibility for these children, is there a final destination or perhaps, the hope relies upon that our system will locate a family member in the U.S. that would succumb to their rescue. The bigger question is what is the United States