Analysing Characterization

“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.