The Irrepressible American Voice One of the greatest things about being an American is the ability to voice my opinion and viewpoint regardless of race, gender, or class. This was not always the case. Many have had to struggle to make their voice heard, and the mindset of American’s furthered the oppression of minority voices. Revolution invigorated the American spirit with a new sense of self-worth and validation of artistic expression by all people. Voices that were once silenced found listeners through literature. Rather than one genre or narrative making way for the next through hostile takeover, many voices rise and refuse to be muzzled. Before independence there seems to be a pattern that suggests that there was no room for more than …show more content…
Narratives such as Rowlandson’s gave a voice to women in the realm of written words, but at the cost of the Native voice. According to the website www.maryrowlandson.com, …in 1682 [Rowlandson] published a narrative of her captivity which became America's first best seller. At that time it was highly unusual for a woman to be a published author. Hers is a story of the triumph of faith over adversity. It provides a first hand description of Indian life during this conflict [, King Phillip’s War]. (n.p.) While Rowlandson’s narrative was highly read throughout the American colonies, the narrative of the Native became her description of them. Rowlandson’s words are considered to reflect “triumph of faith over adversity,” while at the same time solidifying the preconceived notion that Natives are uncivilized savages. This narrative gives rise to her credibility as an author, and at the same time ensures that the voice of women moved further from the realm of the oppressed, and into that of the oppressor. My second insight was how stereotypes and misconceptions in literature are a powerful means by which to change the fate of an entire …show more content…
Much discrimination and misogyny still permeate our social stratosphere, but while reading written words one cannot help but to be placed in the author’s shoes, and therefore accept their words as our own. Cain writes, “Many of the texts written by women during this time reflect the idea that there are natural differences between the sexes. Usually a female narrator…privately addresses a mainly female audience about issues that might seem mainly to concern women” (825). Because the text is written in a female voice, the reading adapts themselves to that voice, and gives credit to the
Rowlandson, Mary. “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983. 343-366.
In Mary Rowlandson, “A Captivity Narrative”, Rowlandson recounts her experiences as a captive of the Wampanoag tribe. The tribe took captives from Lancaster in 1676 because of the ongoing violent altercations between the English colonists and Native Americans during King Philip’s War. Since many of the Native Americans brethren had fallen in battle, they saw it fit to take English folk captive and use them to take the place of their fallen brethren, trading/ransom pieces, or killing them in revenge. This was becoming a common practice for the Native Americans to attack villages and in result, some English started fleeing the area or started to retaliate. Rowlandson was a Puritan wife and mother, in her
Mary Rowlandson and Benjamin Franklin to this day remain two of the prominent figures from their time in their descriptions and accounts of the culture and interactions among the Native Americans and the colonials. It is interesting to look at their widely different opinions on the Native Americans. The difference in time certainly must have had some impact on their differing point of views. As another century of learning to cohabitate with the colonials surely had to have some effect on how Native Americans treated and dealt with them. Rowlandson has negative and resentful remarks about the Native Americans. Her disparaging views of the Native Americans are based from her personal experience as a victim of inhumane acts and as a prisoner
The events leading up to the King Philip’s War are critical to understanding Rowlandson’s overall goal in her narrative. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Europeans and the Indians were still at peace due to the European traders needing fur from the Indians. By the middle of the century, a change in European fashion decreased the need for furs although the need for Indian fur still existed, the colonists’ desire for Indian land was increasing. Other problems for the Indians emerged as more colonists arrived in the New World such as colonists’ farm animals destroying Indian crops and a vast number of Indians dying due to the import of European disease. Other Cultural d...
...ve Indians. From the copious use of examples in Winthrop's work, and the concise detail in Rowlandson's narrative, one can imbibe such Puritans values as the mercy of God, place in society, and community. Together, these three elements create a foundation for Puritan thought and lifestyle in the New World. Though A Model of Christian Charity is rather prescriptive in its discussion of these values, Rowlandson's captivity narrative can certainly be categorized as descriptive; this pious young woman serves as a living example of Winthrop's "laws," in that she lives the life of a true Puritan. Therefore, both 17th century works are extremely interrelated; in order to create Winthrop's model community, one must have faith and closely follow Puritan ideals, as Rowlandson has effectively done in her A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
Mary Rowlandson’s memoir The Sovereignty and Goodness of God was indeed a compelling, thorough and praise worthy piece of literature. Rowlandson, not only recollected a chapter of her life, she delivered a solid visual of the circumstances during Metacom’s War. Rowlandson being a minister’s wife, a Puritan and pious women, gives us her journey with the Indians. Without any hesitation she narrates the journey she experienced and in the following essay, I will be discussing portions of her journey, and the significance of religion in her life.
Rowlandson, Mary. A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.In Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives. Ed. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
When Rowlandson writes about her first days being a captive, she describes the natives with an extremely negative tone. Rowlandson describes one day: “Now away we must go with those barbarous creatures… which made the place a lively resemblance of hell” (271). Because of her great suffering, from being separated from her children to the loss
Interestingly although she feared and reviled the Indians she states that not one of them offered the least abuse of unchastity to her. Her captors never sexually molested or violated her. Rowlandson learned to adapt and strove to make it thought her captivity alive. She learned how to gather food for herself. Tolerate the ways of the Indians, and make clothes for the tribe. She even decided to stay with the Indians when given the chance to escape. “Rowlandson refused them choosing to stay put and let God choose when she was fully redeemed and ready to be released”
...y uses anecdotes and stories of women in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide evidence to the reader and demonstrate the roles women filled and how they filled those roles. Furthermore, she illustrates the individuality in each woman’s story. Although in several of the stories the women may be filling the same roles, the uniqueness of the situation varies from woman to woman. Ulrich’s use of period stories helps add to the credibility of the arguments she makes. She makes the reader feel the weight of responsibility on the shoulders of colonial New England women. A sense of appreciation is gained by the reader for the sheer number of roles fulfilled by the women of New England. In addition, Ulrich’s real life accounts also give valuable insight to life as it was during this time period in American history and the silent heroes behind it – the wives of New England.
In her account, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Rowlandson
Rowlandson, Mary. A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.In Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives. Ed. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
I think that this narrative is important for us to read in order to understand the mind-sets of the colonists and the Indians at the time of King Philip’s War. I believe that it is an excellent source, and really allows the reader to get a peak at what life was like during the 17th century. I also think that it is amazing that she is the second “American” woman to write and publish a book, and it is interesting to see how strong she was to preserve her own life in such an unfamiliar and “uncivilized” situation.
In various forms of literary works, a reader can observe the inequality of women over an extended period of time. From the late 19th century till the present, women have progressed in being considered equal to men; however, in the beginning, this was not always the case. The position of women in society has advanced immensely from being viewed as beneath men, regarding their actions and their intelligence, to being able to do almost anything that a man can. This progression of the equal treatment of women can be seen in Henry James’ “Daisy Miller: A Study,” Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek,” and Louise Erdrich’s “Fleur,” when women must endure double standards, are treated as less intelligent, and have less
Throughout history, women writers used pen names and pseudonyms to avoid the eyes of the patriarchal society. The female writers were no strangers to harsh criticism from the gender-biased readers regarding their artistic works. However such emphasis on gender discrimination coined the words, feminism and sexism, which now reflect on the past and the present conflicts. In the book A Room Of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf tracks down the history of women and fiction to find the answer. She argues, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. She chants on and on about the topic of “women and fiction”, contemplating the role of women in the traditional domain and the virtues of women writers. Although, Woolf may have contemplated over such awareness that a woman needs an atmosphere of her own in which nobody can intrude, the modern world has prevailed over such hindrances throughout technological innovations that offer freedom of speech. Also, economical affluence is not a necessity for women to engage in the fictional world but rather a sufficient condition in the modern world. Thus Virginia Woolf’s predictions failed to represent the current vantage point revolving around women and fiction.