The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

The captivity narrative thrives off of the fear of the unknown, the unexplored regions of the world and the unfamiliar cultures of “others”. In The Sovereignty and Goodness of God by Mary Rowlandson this is no exception, as a captive herself Rowlandson writes a first hand account of her experiences in the hands of her Native captors. Mary describes her captors as a forest, a wild, unfamiliar, uncharted territory that is used in many captivity narratives to show a difference between the captor and captive. Rowlandson says in The Sixth Remove, “ The Indians were as thick as the trees: it seemed as if there had been a thousand hatchets going at once: if one looked before one, there was nothing but Indians, and behind one, nothing but Indians,”(Rowlandson 86). Rowlandson uses a simile and repetition in this sentence comparing the natives to a never ending forest, describing how she is surrounded by others in an unfamiliar environment. Rowlandson continues, praising God for keeping her safe, “I my self in the midst and no Christian soul, and yet how hath the lord preserved me in safety! Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God to me and mine,”( Rowlandson 87). She describes herself as being lost in the wilderness of the natives, a forest of people whom she is unfamiliar, uncomfortable with and fearful of. Mary Rowlandson uses the misconceptions of the native people and the wilderness to further her captivity narrative, by showing how the unknown is all the more terrifying.