Essay Example about the Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration

The narrative is written by Mary Rowlandson to demonstrate the goodness, faithfulness and sovereignty of God. The narrative takes place in 1674 during the King Philips War. Her work Captivity and Restoration is aimed at showing Gods wonderful work.

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The town of Lancaster Massachusetts is attacked at sunrise. When Rowlandson looks outside, she witnesses her neighbors houses burning as the attackers take hostages. She sees other neighbors being shot to death while others beg for their dear life. The Indians fails to listen as and the murderous wretches goes on killing, burning and destroying everything that comes their way. As Rowlandson testifies, this is her dolefulest day she has ever had. On reaching her house, Rowlandson family members joins hands, and they start fighting their attackers. The Indians surrounds Rowlandsons house, and they shoot towards it as they fight with her family members. Some of her family members get shot, and they are wallowing in their blood and the remaining ones become more and more helpless. As Rowlandson and the lucky few try to escape from their house, they meet their attackers. At this juncture, Rowlandsons brother who is already wounded dies. The ruthless Indians strip him off his clothes, and they shoot Rowlandson side and the arm of the child she is carrying. More so, Rowlandson witnesses her nephew Williams leg being broke before he is killed. Rowlandson sister also dies from a bullet through her head, but she is lucky to become Indians captive.

Rowlandson and other hostages journey to the Indians destiny are full of suffering. As they leave their Lancaster town, the hostages are led to walk into a vast and desolate wilderness. They go to places that she does not recognize, and this escalates her sorrow and bitterness that she can hardly express either in spoken or written words. One of the Indians helps her carry her daughter using his horse, but she keeps mourning until Rowlandson takes her back. She carries her, walks restlessly until all her strength runs out. She stumbles and the horseman takes her together with her daughter on his horse. They are placed on the horse without a saddle. As the horse rides down a hill, they fall off the horse because there is nothing to hold them. The Indians finds this fun, and they laugh loudly, ridiculing Rowlandson and her daughter. At the moment, she thinks she would die but God gives her strength to keep going. Her spirit does not utterly sink even at the hardest affliction because Gods gracious and merciful spirit is with her.

Even as Rowlandsons tribulations become unbearable, she realizes Gods might. Along the journey that takes them four days, the hostages have eaten nothing, and they are in lamentable condition. She thinks that God has all reasons to punish her because she has wasted Gods holy time. On the arrival to the Wenimesset village the home of the attackers, Rowlandsons wound is healed using oak leaves but, unfortunately, her daughter dies. Rowlandson laments but she eventually thanks God for showing her grace and preventing her from taking her life when her daughter dies.

Rowlandsons situation exacerbates as she is separated from her company. She is separated from her daughter Mary and her four cousins, and she does not expect ever to see them again. She leaves their end to God as she has learned to trust in God in everything. She recalls one of her poor woman thats she never saw after they departed. The poor old woman had begged the Indians to allow her to go home. Instead, the burnt her and her child live so that other hostages can fear to ask to be set free. As she was told, the poor woman kept praying all through as she was burnt, and she did not shed tears at all.

In every situation that Rowlandson goes through, she see Gods power, and she relates the circumstance with Gods word. When the journey becomes tough on her, she opens her Bible and reads Jeremiah 31.16. 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 enemies.Along the way through the desert, the Indian soldiers and their hostages are chased by the English Army. The Indians chooses some of the strongest men, and they send them back to fight with the English soldiers as the women, the old and the children move on faster. They arrive at Banquang River, and they start cutting dry trees so that they can use them to cross the river. When it is her turn to cross the river, Rowlandson does it safely without wetting her foot, and she acknowledges this as Gods favor. Isaiah 43: 2 When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. In the first two weeks of her journey with the Indians, Rowlandson hardly had something to eat. She also did not rest during Sabbath as the Indians threatened to break her face. All this time, she kept recalling Gods word Psalms 81: 13-14, Oh that my people had hearkened to me, and the Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries.