Captivity In Captivity

Many people view being a captive as the worst thing that has ever happened to them, but in many cases it can be viewed as beneficial to that person's strength. Throughout centuries, captivity has been defined as the condition of being imprisoned or confined. Although the horrors surrounding being a captive are terrible, the promise that every captive should keep in mind is: there is always light at the end of the tunnel. That is because every traumatizing event one experiences, just leads one to be a stronger person once one can speak about it. Captivity narratives always end with the captive freeing themselves or being freed, which then propels them to share their story with the world. Being able to write about your experience as a captive

Mary Rowlandson, published in 1682, writes about her journey of becoming a captive to being ransomed into freedom. Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861, writes about her life as a slave girl and the events that caused her to escape for her freedom. Michelle Knight, author of Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, published on May 6, 2014, tells her story about being held captive for over ten years. To prove that being held captive makes one a stronger person, these three women share their captivity stories with the world by writing about their journey from a captive, to a free person. Mary Rowlandson’s sharing of her captivity is the element that connects her to every other captivity narrative and makes her a stronger woman. With her story taking place in the late seventeenth century, during King Philip's War, one can assume that society was in a much more undeveloped state. Her faith with God is seen throughout the text which leads one to believe she knew he had a

As her narrative begins, she explains to the reader that she was ignorant of being a slave, until she figured out she was enslaved at age six. She thought that she was living a “normal” life and that things were just the way they were. Jacobs writes, “I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of at any moment.” (911). Looking back at her experience and now writing about it, Jacobs has the power to call herself a free woman. The idea of being free was a goal that took many hardships to acquire so when writing about her captivity, she too recognizes that captivity has made a stronger woman. By comparing Frederick Douglas’ and Harriet Jacobs’ captivity, Jennie Miller concludes, “Both experienced painful discontent as they pondered their own condition in bondage, which, in turn, fueled each writer’s determination to obtain their freedom.” (32). Without being captive, Jacobs would have never gained strength from her determination to be free. Although she escaped from her master, Jacobs only way to survive before her escape was to go into hiding for almost seven years. She writes, “It has been painful to me, in many ways, to recall the dreary years I passed in bondage. I would gladly forget them if I could.” (931). The fact that her