Firstly, I will discuss how the indigenous people are represented through the colonizer 's dominant gaze as the inferior Other and how this notion is used to assert the colonizer’s identity as the superior Self in America. The West Indies is a very different environment compared to Europe and the natives are unlike the European colonizer. Their culture, lifestyle and appearance would be considered alien, unusual and even primitive to the colonizer. And because of the profound differences between the colonizer and the indigenous people, between Europe and the New World, the natives are perceived by the colonizer as strange, peculiar, bizarre, primitive and overall different. Because the colonizer is unable to identify and distinguish himself …show more content…
0.1a), “ravenous beasts” (para. 0.4) and “barbarous creatures” (para. 1.1) which again portrays the indigenous people as barbarians and untamed savages. Rowlandson uses animal metaphors to further establish the identity of the native Indians as “wild beasts of the forest” (para. 4.2) such as labelling the natives as “roaring lions, and savage bears” (para. 20.5a). Lions and bears are predatory animals that ruthlessly kill their prey and Rowlandson relates the Indians to lions and bears because like the wild beasts themselves the Indians mercilessly attack and kill people. This is clearly illustrated at the beginning of her narrative where Rowlandson vividly describes how her kin and fellow Englishmen are murdered by the Indians. She describes how the Indians “went on, burning, and destroying” (para. 0.1a) houses, “split open [the] bowels” (para. 0.1a) of their dead victims and “strip[-ping] [them] naked” (para. 0.1a). To add, Rowlandson’s use of animal imagery also underlines how like wild animals, the Indians are also inhabitants of the harsh wilderness reminding her readers that the Indians are not identified as humans. They do not live in the colonizer’s society or civilization. Besides animal imagery, Rowlandson also makes use of hellish imagery when referring to the Indians. In her narrative, she mentions them as “a company of hell-hounds” (para. 0.3a) and states how the forest, the habitat and domain of the Indians, is “a lively resemblance of hell” (para. 1.1a) which further dehumanizes the Indians. By employing hellish imagery, the Indians are portrayed as wicked and corrupt beings of Hell, a spiritual realm of suffering and evil. They are presented as demons, the embodiment of evil or are associated with the Devil. In relation to her status as a Puritan, a Christian, by labelling the Indians as agents of Hell they are considered
She uses anything from “othering” to repetition to religion to prove the fact these Indians were savage. “Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy, Ay, even those that seem to profess more than others among them, when the English have fallen into their hands” (260). Othering directly effects the reader’s views of the Indians, reading personal accounts of horrific acts committed by Indians and eating vulgar food like horses does effect the outlook on Indians, form the reader’s perspective. Mary Rowlandson spiritually finds God during the capture and we can see the dependence start to grow for the Bible and talking to God. She strongly believes in God’s providence, thinking he was with her the whole entire trip, leading her, having a plan the whole time for things to work
Response Paper #2 Mary Rowlandson is a strong, puritan mother whose life gets turned upside down when Indians attack Lancaster and spit settlers apart and take her captive. Through God’s power and grace, she is able to capture the Puritan belief that everything that happens, happens for a reason. Whether it be good or evil, Mary Rowlandson is able to capture Gods power and grace through her traumatic experience held captive by Indians.
The Puritan doctrine was a heavy influence on Rowlandson’s interpretive views on her captivity. The belief that God is active and in control of every aspect of their lives because they believed that when they received good things it was a sign of God’s grace, and misfortune was a sign of God’s divine judgment for the purpose of punishing his people for their misdeeds and to teach them a lesson from it. When Rowlandson and the Indians are making their way across the river she realizes that the English Army is on their way, but when the English arrived at the river they couldn’t cross it to follow. “God did not give them the courage to or activity to go over after us; we were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance”(Rowlandson
One misconception she described was the belief European and Native American Warfare were similar. She stated Native American combat was comparable to martial arts, and not fought to the death like Europian warfare. Killing on the battlefield was a waste of life in the eyes of Native Americans. Instead, they would take captives to adopt them into their society. Based on this evidence, it would seem that the Native population was inherently peaceful.
Pg - 8. The Native Americans have told her that they would kill her husband on his return to Lancaster, and her life might be taken at any moment. As the culture and the lifestyle of the Native Americans were new to Rowlandson, she compared their singing, dancing, and cooking of plundered animals like horses, cattle, sheep, swine, calves, lambs, roasting-pigs, and fowls to hell. She worried over
In the book , he describes the characters in a way that might irritate the Native Americans. Because“Great Death”John describes the natives while stereotyping them. On page 14 paragraph 4: “But the two men with him were strange-looking. Their skin was light, almost white. One had red hair , While the other’s hair was like that of a light-colored-grizzly bear.
she brought the mental images of kenaimas and the reality of dreams with her to barbados from south america. Elements of those beliefs would surface later and with great consequence during her interrogation in Salem in 1692”. The idea that the spiritual was more powerful than human, probes that American Indian culture somehow matches the ideals of the European perception of
Critical Analysis Essay Assignment In Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, a story about a serious issue is told in a native-styled humorous tone, and within the metaphoric characters and stories, the colonizing history happened on the land of North America that we used to is revised from a brand-new point of view, and the cultural conflict between western and native people is depicted in a detailed and unexpected way that makes you think deeper as the after taste of the diverting story. Thomas King used a native-styled religious story about the creation of the world from the native point of view in the form of their legends and stories, presenting as a new recognition of the colonization history without the influence of the stereotyped
Food is an essential thing needed to survive. In A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson; Rowlandson faced many challenges that she had to overcome. During her captivity, her biggest challenge was finding food every day. Her captors’ food was different compared to the food she was used to in her Puritan society in Europe. This forced her to adapt to her captors’ eating habits if she wanted any food.
This week we discussed ‘“The Tempest” in the Wilderness: A Tale of Two Frontiers’ by Ronald Takaki. In this article, the author discusses the differences between savagery and civilization. The main argument in this argument is shown in the form of examples of how the Indians and Irish were simply harmless at first when discovering the New World, but quickly made into monsters by the English men. I’m sure we’ve all learned in history of John Smith’s description of how the Powhatans cared for the sick and dying English men.
Merrell’s article proves the point that the lives of the Native Americans drastically changed just as the Europeans had. In order to survive, the Native Americans and Europeans had to work for the greater good. Throughout the article, these ideas are explained in more detail and uncover that the Indians were put into a new world just as the Europeans were, whether they wanted change or
Generally, there is a repetition among all of the regions that have descriptions of each of the tragedies that took place to those Indians. The Northeast, separated into part one and two, covered the disappearance of east coast tribes and their deep rooted ties into the Northeast Woodland area. He uses tribes like the Algonquian and gives examples of their lives and how european trade and need for material items affected them. Part two of the Northeast covers the death and destruction those europeans caused with diseases, where 90% of the population died in some instances. Pure greed over their land, with the terrible massacres that happened to the tribes was also covered and how they wore down the Indian’s to not fight.
History is what we learn in school about the past, about people’s culture, their way of life, their beliefs, their fight and their dreams. However, history is not an absolute truth. In fact, every story has more than one version. The History of the native American in the United States still one of the most controversial subjects in history, not only because of all the ambiguity filled in the story, but also and more importantly because the it was written by only one side. Indeed, it was written by the winners, the invaders, and the dominants.
Mary Rowlandson’s work could make the reader feel a sense of anger towards the Natives. One example is she describes looking out the window and seeing houses burning and the villagers being killed by the Natives. Another example is when Rowlandson is remembering when the Natives forced her to come with them or she would be killed. The reader may also believe the Natives just want to hurt the colonist. One reason why the reader can believe that is Mary never told why the Natives were attacking the village she lived in.
“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson”: The Influence of Intercultural Contact on Puritan Beliefs “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson gives a first person perspective into the circumstances of captivity and cultural interaction and an insight to Rowlandson 's attitude towards the Indians, both before and after she was held captive. Rowlandson displays a change in her perception of "civilized" and "savage", in spite of the fact that her overall world view does not alter. It should be covered below that in the following Essay, since the author and the narrator are the same person, will not be individually distinguished. For one thing, Mary Rowlandson provides all the conventions typical of a Puritan perspective.