The Faith of Mary Rowlandson Essay Example

her way back to God.

In this instance, when she fears she is cursed, she turns to the next chapter in her bible, and learns that mercy is hers once again (Rowlandson 449). In another instance, Mary is told by the Indians to work on the Sabbath. She asks them if she can rest, but they threaten her and force her to labor. While working, she starts to consider that fact that somehow the Indians were managing to keep off the English Army, crossing rivers that the English could not, keeping up the pace with sick and wounded people. She writes “And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen... (Rowlandson 450). At this point Mary cannot seem to help but to contemplate why God is allowing the Indians to prevail in this war. There was no denying the stark differences between the victories of the English and the Indians. Consider the fact that the Puritans were Christians of the strictest variety, and they did not believe that the Indians were blessed with God’s grace. It is quite understandable then that Mary would find it troubling that her people were suffering devastating effects of this war fought by people who were not even Christians. So she questions whether or not this is God’s work.

In the end she concludes that God is not helping the Indians, rather he knows that the English are not ready for his mercy, and her faith is restored once again (Rowlandson 450). As Mary’s story unravels, she continues to suffer long hours of work, starvation, and separation from her family. She reads

her holy bible and is constantly reminding herself that God is with her and will see her through these trials. Her spirits are lifted her master agrees to sell Mary to her husband, and her mistress begins the journey with her, but before long the mistress decides not to go any further and they turn back.

Not long after, she starts to loose hope that she will ever be reunited with her family. She becomes discouraged, and her spirit is heavy. “Then also I took my Bible to read, but I found no comfort here neither... ” she relates in her writing (Rowlandson 454). Now she has been in captivity for quite some time, and she is finding it difficult to withstand the constant blows. She seems to be getting less comfort from her bible, and it appears as if it’s becoming more difficult for her to keep her faith in God. In a sense, she even seems to lash out at God when she thinks about how easy it is for God to punish his sinners.

She conveys to the reader that “So easie a thing it is with God to dry up the Streames of Scripture-comfort from us” (Rowlandson 454). Still it’s not long before she comes to a passage in the bible (which she believes God brought her to) that boosts her faith enough to keep her going (Rowlandson 445). Despite Mary’s ability hold on to her faith throughout the moments of wavering, there is a theme throughout the writing that is subtle and quite, yet steady. She wishes to die. Not all of the time, but the thought crosses her mind

on more than one occasion.

She credits God with keeping her from succumbing to her wishes to “use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life” she notes in her writings of the second remove (Rowlandson 448). Throughout the rest of her narrative, she makes several mention of being better off dead than moving on, and at one point she touches on the idea starving to death. One might argue that this does not demonstrate her faith wavering because she resolves these wishes through God and the bible, yet it could be said that Thanatos, by nature, is in direct opposition to what the Christians believed.

The Puritans, as a rule, did not take it upon themselves to question God, and this includes when God would choose to end a life, therefore; this can be interpreted as a sign of Mary’s struggle with her faith (Kizer). Although Mary Rowlandson’s faith was the very foundation that she stood on during her time of captivity, sometimes this foundation shook, and presented the very real threat that it could crumble at anytime. She suffered a horrific experience, with trials and losses that would trouble and confuse even the most faithful followers of Christ.