Comparative Analysis of Mary Rowlandson’s and Olaudah Equiano’s Narratives

Religion plays a key factor in two important texts: A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano both have a religious role in their own stories. After reading both narratives, I have learned that there are many similarities and differences between the two. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s faith and religious beliefs had a huge impact on their lives. Rowlandson and Equiano both write captivity narratives, while Equiano writes about being held captive by white men, Rowlandson writes about being held captive by Native Americans. Reading these narratives shows the similarities and differences in the purpose of each narrative written as well as the experiences both Rowlandson and Equiano went through. Both stories show the emotional, mental, and physical struggle they went through while being held captive.

Mary Rowlandson was the author of A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration. She wrote about her captivity by Native Americans in 1675. Mary Rowlandson was an adult woman at the time she was taken. She found herself being kidnapped in the middle of King Philip’s War. Mary Rowlandson describes waking up and hearing “the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning and the smoke ascending to heaven” (Rowlandson 132). In this very moment she writes about her family and her people trying to either fight back for their lives or waiting until the Indians took over. “Lord, what shall we do” (Rowlandson 133)? It is clear from the beginning of the narrative that Mary Rowlandson’s faith and beliefs is what gets her through her cruel treatment being a captive of the Native Americans. In the second remove of the narrative, Rowlandson is forced to travel with the Indians into the deserted wilderness. During this time Mary Rowlandson and her family are being badly abused physically, mentally, and emotionally. She writes about this spirit she had when she was forced to depart into the woods. “God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail” (Rowlandson 135). Mary Rowlandson faced many discouragements. For one example, her youngest daughter died without having enough food or being taken care of. With this awful hardship going on, Mary Rowlandson believes that God was giving her the strength for this unknown journey and did not want her to give up but to believe that she can keep going regardless of the fears and confusion. “The Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of His power” (Rowlandson 135). Mary Rowlandson’s faith in God keeps her alive. I think that Mary Rowlandson came to terms with her situation as a captive and instead of asking “why me?” she pushed through it, kept her faith in God, and understood that God planned this for her, and she had to fight to survive. By believing in God she was able to overcome her current situations as a captive and was able to understand the certain things she needed to do to live. The faith she had with these impossible challenges is what kept her alive and allowed her to be restored in the end.

Olaudah Equiano published his narrative The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. It was published in 1789 in London and it was printed in the states two years later. He tells the story of himself and his younger sister getting captured by kidnappers when they were just children. He then writes about his journey to the West African coast. Equiano believes that being captured was fate. They were each sold to different slave owners and his sister and him were then separated after that. After being kidnapped he discovered his faith of Christianity. In Olaudah Equiano’s narrative, we start to see how religion played an important role in his life at this time. Throughout Equiano’s argument against slavery and slave trade and writing about it, he drew connections between his life experiences as a slave and having faith in God through the process. Equiano was sold to many different masters and traveled through America and the West Indies. One of his masters in London introduced Equiano to Miss Guerin who treated him with nothing but kindness. He learned from her that he could not go to heaven unless he was baptized. Equiano writes “this made me very uneasy, for I had now some faint idea of a future state” (Equiano 386). After this moment Olaudah Equiano was meeting God in a sense and was learning to have faith in the Lord. He was then baptized in St. Margaret’s church. Equiano was very smart; he had learned how to read and write. After some hardships and near-death experiences, Olaudah looked up to God more than ever before. Equiano writes about seeing better days and wishes he was in a state of freedom. “My mind was therefore hourly replete with inventions and thoughts of being freed” (397). Equiano wanted to trust the Lord to free him, “in the midst of these thoughts, I therefore looked up with prayers anxiously to God for my liberty” (Equiano 397). Equiano had more and more respect for God and his faith because of all his trials as a slave. Equiano knew to believe that God was in charge of his fate and freedom. For example, Olaudah Equiano states “but as I thought that if it were God’s will I ever should be freed, it would be so, and, on the contrary, if it was not His will, it would not happen” (Equiano 400). He put his faith in God and knew that he would make the ultimate decision and make his path for him. While working so much and finally being able to buy his own freedom, he looked at how God got him through slavery.

After reading both narratives, I was able to find some similarities and differences between the two. Mary Rowlandson was writing this story about captivity to her puritans who were still in England. Rowlandson’s main message was that the whites weren’t treating the Native American’s in a cruel way but rather the complete opposite. The Native American’s were killing and kidnapping the white people for no real reason. Olaudah Equiano however, was writing against slavery. He wrote about his personal experiences being owned by different masters and what it was like having faith throughout his journey and eventually being able to learn that he could buy his own freedom. I believe that Olaudah Equiano’s captors were a lot more violet in their actions compared to Mary Rowlandson. Just one example, “one white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute” (Equiano 380). Olaudah Equiano uses the word “brute” and compares it to a human. Equiano describes them tossing someone’s body overboard like it was some savage, violent animal. To me this treatment just seemed unrealistic, but Equiano explains how this made him fear these people even more than before. Equiano writes “I expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner” (Equiano 380). I noticed that both Olaudah and Mary wrote about the bible and how they thought that at some moments God was either rewarding them of something or punishing them for something they shouldn’t have done. Both Olaudah Equiano and Mary Rowlandson got their freedom in the end. Mary’s ransom was paid for and Olaudah paid for his own freedom.

Captivity narratives give the readers insight to what the narrators were going through and their experiences. Both of these stories showed the emotional, mental, and physical struggle Equiano and Rowlandson went through while being held captive. I believe that without religion, Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano wouldn’t have kept trying to survive. I know when you look up to God for strength, he answers your prayers. There is no doubt here that Rowlandson and Equiano survived because of the Lord. I think in this time period, many people relied on God and his ideas to move forward in life. I believe in today’s time we rely on him to help us but we also ask for prayers and strength from family and friends.

Works Cited

• Levine, Robert S. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.