Mary Rowlandson

Question 1

Rowlandson: full title

Answer 1

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Question 2

Rowlandson: born

Answer 2

1636

Question 3

Rowlandson: dies

Answer 3

1711

Question 4

Rowlandson: written

Answer 4

1682

Question 5

Rowlandson: centres

Answer 5

Text of Bible

Question 6

Rowlandson: trauma

Answer 6

redemption and restoration

Question 7

Rowlandson: folklore

Answer 7

local legend

Question 8

Rowlandson: ideology, community, identity

Answer 8

She calls the Indian attack a “raid” but never refers to a “war.” Shaping white identity with the Indian Other

Question 9

Rowlandson: commerce

Answer 9

She eventually begins to participate in the econ: knits, etc.

Question 10

Rowlandson: captivity narrative, development

Answer 10

Hers is chief; spiritual—they grow more secular and pulpy as frontier expands and movement is less Puritan

Question 11

Rowlandson: other genre terms?

Answer 11

• Heroism, high adventure
• Biblical narrative (myth?)
• Sermon
• Spiritual autobiography

Question 12

Rowlandson: tone

Answer 12

Pious; humble; longsuffering, faithful

Question 13

Rowlandson: style

Answer 13

Plain, with devotional passion

Question 14

Rowlandson: her daughter

Answer 14

dies

Question 15

Rowlandson: she is separated from

Answer 15

her son

Question 16

Rowlandson: signs of God’s wrath

Answer 16

against the Indians: constant starvation. Against the colonists: Indians

Question 17

Rowlandson: survival versus escape

Answer 17

Survival permissible since it allows for continued chastisement from God; but she doesn’t attempt to escape because that would also resist God’s plan to chastise and humble and teach her.

Question 18

Rowlandson: signs

Answer 18

When would-be escapees (who tried to convince her to escape with them) are caught and brutally murdered, she sees this as evidence she’s done right.

Question 19

Rowlandson: she obtains a

Answer 19

Bible. This is crucial.

Question 20

Rowlandson: thriving in captivity?

Answer 20

Becomes thriving under God’s tutelage. There are moments in which she seems to thrive—food has never tasted so good (as when she eats after starving)—signs of God’s instruction taking effect

Question 21

Rowlandson: wilderness

Answer 21

Biblical topos; a place of wandering, suffering, learning, punishment. Also a place where one is subjected to the devil.

Question 22

Rowlandson: her husband is

Answer 22

minister of the town of Lancaster

Question 23

Rowlandson: formal features

Answer 23

Divided into “removes” (there are many)

Question 24

Rowlandson: how it’s received

Answer 24

One of the most popular prose works of the 17th c. here and in England—first “best seller” in American history

Question 25

Rowlandson: published with

Answer 25

a sermon of her husband's

Question 26

Rowlandson: as author

Answer 26

this is her first book; she's not an author; not just trying to get attention or money.

Question 27

Rowlandson: born where?

Answer 27

In England, probably brought to colonies at a young age.

Question 28

Rowlandson: her father was a

Answer 28

wealthy landholder in Massachusetts Bay Colony

Question 29

Rowlandson: the raid happens

Answer 29

February 1676

Question 30

Rowlandson: she is ransomed in

Answer 30

May 1676

Question 31

Rowlandson: she is ransomed for

Answer 31

20 pounds

Question 32

Rowlandson: King Philip's real name is

Answer 32

Metacomet

Question 33

Rowlandson: "King Philip's War" started because

Answer 33

colonists want to buy Wampanoag land; they don't comply; Plymouth Colony captures Wampanoag chief in 1664; he dies in captivity; Metacomet becomes chief.

Question 34

Rowlandson: Metacomet agrees to Plymouth C's demands to purchase land, but colonists keep

Answer 34

encroaching

Question 35

Rowlandson: in 1671 colonists demand Metacomet

Answer 35

answer for his "aggression," though it's their fault

Question 36

Rowlandson: "King Philip's War" officially declared in

Answer 36

1675

Question 37

Rowlandson: colonial alliance

Answer 37

All colonies unite in King Philip's War

Question 38

Rowlandson: King Philip's War lasts

Answer 38

3 years

Question 39

Rowlandson: how many colonists die in KPW? Indians?

Answer 39

600; 3,000

Question 40

Rowlandson: influences what fiction

Answer 40

Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans; Faulkner's Sanctuary

Question 41

Rowlandson: "Wait on the Lord, be..."

Answer 41

"of good courage, and He shall strengthen thee."

Question 42

Rowlandson: an important concept to Puritans generally is "merciful..."

Answer 42

"affliction"

Question 43

Rowlandson: the Nancy thesis

Answer 43

she is reconciling her subjectivity to God to her subjectivity to the Indians, negotiating a narrative to reconcile these two.

Question 44

Rowlandson: what two things does R take control of by writing this?

Answer 44

1. people's understanding of the facts of her captivity (e.g. that the Indians didn't lay a hand on her physically). 2. interpretation of the event (God working in her life as opposed to her downfall signaling her own wickedness)