Comparison of "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mr.s Mary Rowlandson" to Puritan writing 8/29/12

     One of the big things about Puritan writing was its big connections to the bible.  Puritans believed that the bible was the literal word of God, and they tried to relate that as much as  possible.  Immediately in "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" the author refers to God:  "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he has made in the earth" (Rowlandson 82).  It is literally the second sentence and Mary Rowlandson is already speaking of her religion and proclaiming how wonderful her God is.  This is very Puritan-esque.  She does not stop there, either.  By my calculations, the author references God or the Christian faith in some way at least eight times through the course of the short story.  For a three page short story that is pretty impressive.  The author directly tells us about how God has worked in her life during her captivity with the Indians.  "God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail" (Rowlandson 83).  She tells us how when she is struggling to carry this 'wounded babe' and her strength is failing her, God is with her not letting her spirits fail. 
      One of the characteristics of Puritan writing is that they would use writing to explore their inner and outer lives for signs of workings of God.  When Mrs. Mary Rowlandson was struggling in the moment with carrying the 'wounded babe' she probably wasn't thinking how awesome God was and how he was with her helping her a long, always.  She was probably thinking how much she hated these crazed savages who had taken her hostage.  Once she was reflecting upon her little adventure later on, however, is when she probably was able to make the realization that God had been working her life.  She used her writing to remember and reflect upon possible events when God had been in her life.  
      Another Puritan characteristic writing is that they were very short and to the point in their writing.  They didn't use very much creative writing.  Adjectives were very rare in the short story unless they were necessary for us to understand a person or event in the story.  In "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" the author is extremely blatant about the whole situation.  She doesn't describe the Indians in their full splendor like many authors would have taken advantage of.  She does not even tell us anything about them really besides a few names and the fact they let her and her wounded babe ride upon their horses at one point.  We know they move around a lot and that they live in wigwams and like her to make them clothes and such, but really that's about as far as it goes in descriptive terms.  She is extremely short and to the point, very characteristic of Puritan writers.   

Field, Nancy. ""A Narrative If Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." Glencoe Literature American Literature: The Reader's Choice. [S.l.]: Glencoe Mcgraw-Hill Schoo, 2003. 82-85. Print.