“The Narrative of the Captivity
and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” is written by Mary Rowlandson to
tell what life in captivity by Indians was like. Narrated by Rowlandson herself
as the first person point of view, her character can be analyzed through the
description of her own thougts and feelings. The character of Rowlandson that
can clearly be seen is her religousness because every event happened to her,
she always remember her God and often quoting Bible to encourage herself.
Rowlandson tries to make sense of her situation by drawing parallels between
her situation and biblical verses.
I opened my Bible to read, and the
Lord brought that precious Scripture to me. “Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy
voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded,
and they shall come again from the land of the enemy” (Jeremiah 31.16). This
was a sweet cordial to me when I was ready to faint; many and many a time have
I sat down and wept sweetly over this Scripture.
It is one of many passages that
show how she gets her strength and hope from the Bible. That makes her character
become optimistic. Among her affliction, she can always see the positive things
that is form of God’s mercy. She presents her story as a lesson to others how
mercy of God helps her.
Another characterization is the
way Rowlandson see other people. She appraises others individually, and does not
judge people depends on group or ras. She does not deem all Indians are her
enemy. She observes her surroundings closely and is capable of seeing them as
human beings as well. She even likes her master that she said, “..my master
being gone, who seemed to me the best friend that I had of an Indian..” She
also without hesitation asks help from the Indian, and it’s true that some of
them still have mercy to help her.
Its characterization is
different with David Lodge’s Changing
Places which use the third person point of view in Chapter 2. The pride of
Morris Zapp and the awkwardness of Philip Swallow are seen from their deed. With
two main characters, the narrator changes the point of view in turns that shows
the different reaction of both in the similar situation.
Beside the narrative, Mary
Rowlandson also mention some remarkable passages of providence that can called
as an essay. She wrote what she has noticed among her afflicted time that proves God’s almighty can always save His people. She observed it in
order to make the readers can take lesson from it.
Different with Rowlandson, Fanny
Fern’s essay named “Independence” tells about her personal feeling as a woman
who cannot really feel the freedom of USA that may also be felt by other women.
Instead of giving lesson to the readers, she only expresses what she feels and
criticizes what happen to her personally and other women generally.
Whereas in “The Working-Girls
of New York”, Fern gives explanation more objectively about the working girls.
She does not much tells her personal life, but gives the facts and opinion of some
kinds of working girl in New York. For example, she tells about the low workers
and compares it with the girls in higher level.
