Faith and Survival in Mary Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative

Introduction: Capture and the Will to Live

Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is one of the earliest and most significant works in the American captivity narrative tradition. Captured by Native Americans in 1675, Rowlandson lived among them for several weeks before her husband managed to ransom her. Her strong will to survive, coupled with her equally strong belief in God, helped her endure the ordeal — and helped her write about it after it had ended.

Indians captured Mary Rowlandson alive after they attacked the town where she lived. Most of her family and friends were killed right before her eyes, so she understood the brutality of her captors firsthand. However, she chose to accompany them rather than die at their hands, even though this contradicted everything she had previously told herself she would do. Early in her narrative she writes, "I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit, that I chose rather to go along with those (as I may say) ravenous beasts, than that moment to end my days" (Rowlandson). This is the first clear indication that Rowlandson possesses a powerful will to survive — and to survive at all costs, even if it means traveling and living with the "ravenous beasts." She wants to live, and surviving will ensure that she can tell her story and perhaps even help others avoid her fate.

Leaving Home and Facing the Wilderness

Rowlandson's narrative conveys how difficult it was to keep going, and how frightened she was of what lay ahead. As they left the area she knew and loved, she felt nothing but sorrow and pain. She writes, "But now, the next morning, I must turn my back upon the town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate wilderness, I knew not whither. It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure" (Rowlandson). She did not know it then, but she would not see her home again for over three months, and when she finally returned, she would find nothing left standing and no one but Indians in the area.

Puritan Faith as a Survival Mechanism

Throughout the narrative, Rowlandson returns again and again to her faith and how it helped her endure this terrible experience. She notes, "But the Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of His power; yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I not experienced it" (Rowlandson). She continues, "Yet the Lord still showed mercy to me, and upheld me; and as He wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other" (Rowlandson). Even after her daughter dies in her arms, she holds fast to her faith, and it gives her hope for the future.

This not only reveals her personal piety but also reflects the strength of the broader Puritan belief system and the conviction that brought the Puritans to America in the first place. In his essay "Mary Rowlandson: Narrator of Captivity," Mark Canada writes, "Finally, in its use of autobiography, typology, and the jeremiad, Rowlandson's book helps us to understand the Puritan mind" (Canada). The Puritans came to America to escape religious persecution in Europe, and their strong convictions helped them settle a new world and cope with the many difficulties that entailed, just as Rowlandson uses her faith to cope with her capture. Indeed, the school named in her honor in Lancaster, Massachusetts — the town where she was living when she was captured — notes that she was born in England and came to America when her father immigrated there in the early 1600s.

Physical Hardship and Determination

Rowlandson had to draw on all her wits and strength to survive. She had been shot in the side, and the Indians did nothing to help her tend to her wound. Her six-year-old daughter had also been wounded, and eventually died. Still, Rowlandson was determined to endure. She nursed her wound, but could not forget her children. She says, "I had one child dead, another in the wilderness, I knew not where, the third they would not let me come near to" (Rowlandson). Eventually her wound healed, and she learned that her son and another daughter had been captured as well. Her will to survive extended to her family, and she attempted to visit her children several times, helping them cope with their situation and sharing her faith with them.

As her captivity continued, Rowlandson also had to overcome her revulsion at the Indians' food. She recounts, "[Y]et it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but the third week, though I could think how formerly my 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" (Rowlandson). Thus, she discovered that her will to survive was stronger than her repugnance, and she began to eat simply to grow stronger. She did not enjoy it, and food was frequently stolen from her, so she learned to guard what little she had. It is yet another example of her determination to live, no matter the circumstances.