Abstract In this article, the writer examines "Captivity," a stream-of-consciousness piece by Sherman Alexie. The writer points out that this work explores Alexie's reaction as a Native-American who grew up on a reservation, amid squalor, alcoholism, poverty, and hopelessness, to one of the classic narratives of a brave white woman enduring the grim experience of being held captive by Native-Americans. The writer discusses that Sherman Alexie, in touch with his tribal past and all of the imagery that it entails, also steps out to do his own dancing, the prolific author of novels, stories, poetry and pieces such as "Captivity," as well as the director of the movie versions of his books.
From the Paper "In "Captivity," Mary Rowlandson is a recurring image: the white, especially the white girl, alone on the reservation. One version of Mary Rowlandson is the daughter of a white reservation worker. Stepping into her first classroom filled with young tribal members, she carries with her a "memory" distilled from the captivity her namesake endured three centuries earlier, at a time when the Wampanoags might well have thought that they had a chance to clear their traditional lands of the grasping colonists. Terrified, the modern Mary Rowlandson flees the school, envisioning each boy as her would-be captor."
Abstract This paper discusses how Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dustin, and Mary Jamison, were each in their own way, able to cope with their captivity. The paper discusses whether the captivity strengthened their understanding of Native Americans. It also looks at why some captives were treated harshly and others as family or tribal members. In addition, the paper explores why Native Americans took captives.
From the Paper "The story of Mary Jamison's capture is quite different from the other women's experiences. Mary Jamison was taken captive by the Shawnee tribe while she was still a teenager. Her family was killed and the tribe adopted her as their own. Jamison actually became a part of the tribe and took a husband and had children. Jamison coped with her captivity by assimilating into the tribe that held her captive. Her ability to be a part of the tribe allowed her to cope with the loss of her family and her captivity."
Abstract This paper explores the construction and meaning of Mary Rowlandson's famous Captivity Narrative, first published in 1682 which tells how she was held captive during King Philip's War of 1675 by Algonquin Indians. The author explains how her autobiographical narrative reveals her religious fervor and struggles, within the context of New England Puritan thought. Within this paper on the Captivity Narrative, there is an analysis of Calvinist thought, and insight into White New Englander prejudices against the Algonquin Indians, and how those prejudices were influenced by a loathing of the Catholic Church.
From the Paper "Mary Rowlandson was captured by the Indians from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts, during King Philip's War of 1675. She wrote a narrative about her captivity and "restoration" which was so widely read that its popularity lasted for another century and more, after its first publication in 1682. Rowlandson's captivity narrative was reissued in Boston in 1770, 1771, and 1773, and it was also released many more times in various colonies and states during the 19th century. (Slotkin: 1973, p. 96). Thus it became one of the most representative documents by which white New Englanders remembered King Philip's War. But just how representative was Rowlandson's narrative, when it came to the realities of the conflict, on both sides, Puritan and Indian? Having been trapped in the wilderness as a prisoner of war, and surviving, Mary Rowlandson saw herself as spiritually renewed and redeemed. While many of the events in her account are probably true, her narrative is still somewhat mythical and shaped, both consciously and unconsciously, to fit her religious and cultural ideals. "
Abstract This paper looks at the captivity periods of Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dustin, and Mary Jamison and how they each coped with captivity in their own way. It explains how the stories of their captivity revealed the much of the customs among Native Americans, especially through the greatly different treatment afforded to the three women.
From the Paper "Mary White Rowlandson, wife of Puritan minister Joseph Rowlandson, was captured by native Americans in February of 1676. During this time, King Philip, the leader of the Wampanoag tribe of southern Massachusetts organized a rebellion against the incursion of white settlers on native land. In total 23 settlers were captured, and 13 people were killed, including Mary's brother-in-law, sister, nieces and nephews. Mary's six-year old daughter died on the trip, and Mary and her other children were sold as a slaves to different masters. Mary made herself useful by sewing and mending clothes for her captors, and was eventually ransomed in May of 1676 for to English settlers for 20 pounds, and reunited with her husband (Lancaster Online; About.com)."
Abstract This paper argues that, while many human rights activists argue against captivity of dolphins from an emotional, exaggerated, and subjective point of view, an objective analysis of the circumstances of captive dolphins indicates that these animals respond negatively to use as creatures of entertainment. It also explains that their living environments are simply inappropriate for their needs, and their exploitation for entertainment and profit communicates a negative message of man's right to dominate and abuse wild creatures, providing strong support for the passage of laws, which prohibit holding dolphins in captivity.
From the Paper "Man's inhumanity towards his fellow creatures takes many forms and falls into two categories: the obvious and the subtle. Humanity's confidence in its superiority over other creatures and attitude towards these creatures as not only sources of food and necessary clothing, but as luxury clothing, sports and entertainment has motivated various obvious acts of cruelty . Among these acts are hunting and killing wild animals for pleasure, slaughtering elephants for their ivory, trapping minks and skinning them for the fur, and using creatures such as white mice for lab testing, to name only a few. On the more subtle level, at least to the majority, cruelty takes the form of capturing wild animals, removing them from their natural habitats, locking them up in small cages or water tanks and using them for human entertainment. This treatment has given rise to a great battle between animal rights activists on one side, and zoos and water amusement parts on the other, with each apparently unwilling to compromise with the other. One of the creatures that is a subject of great debate is the dolphin. Animal activists, such as the biologist director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Ben White, states that captured dolphins, trained to entertain people through cute tricks such as fetching Frisbees or jumping through rings, "are literally dying to amuse us," and that "to ignore dolphin suffering is like protesting child abuse but refusing to help a child being beaten before our eyes." Those who support holding dolphins in captivity, among them vets, animal trainers and biologists, such as Stoskopf, , argue that these creatures are offered a better quality of life than they have in the oceans and seas, "such as high-quality medical care, constant supply of food and freedom from predators" (Stoskopf qtd. in Riley and Faulkner). Careful evaluation of the nature of the dolphins as social, communicative and intelligent creatures who are transformed into captive tools for human entertainment, and assessment of the psychological reactions of the dolphins to their captivity, often motivating suicide, as observed by several animal experts such as Jean Cousteau (Riley and Faulkner) , illustrates that while some of the more reputable amusement parks such as Sea World, do treat captured dolphins well and offer them the best available care, dolphins must not be held as prisoners for human entertainment. While many human rights' activists do argue against captivity of dolphins from an emotional, exaggerated and subjective point of view, an objective analysis of the circumstances of captive dolphins, indicates that these animals respond negatively to use as creatures of entertainment, that their living environments are simply inappropriate for their needs, and their exploitation for entertainment and profit communicates a negative message of man's right to dominate and abuse wild creatures, providing strong support for the passage of laws which prohibit holding dolphins in captivity."
Abstract This paper reviews Linda Colley's "Captives, Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850", a book describing the lives of citizens living in Britain during the period of 1600 to 1850. According to the paper, Colley, a professor of History at Yale University, also includes those Britons living in captivity.
From the Paper "Colley describes life for traveling soldiers as "unpredictable" noting that while the landscape "impressed the English occupation" the landscape and interesting surroundings did nothing "to make the soldiers, officials and families feel any more at home" (Colley 23, Yee 1). Rather many of those immigrating to expansive new lands often felt out of place. Many were also however eager as the author points out for opportunity, for the opportunity for example to diversify their income and develop new estates in foreign lands including the Tangier (Colley 24). The lands that Britain expanded into offered what many believed were "limitless potential" (Colley 25). Those held captive however enjoyed none of the spoils of conquest (Colley 187). Colley notes that more than "20,000 British and Irish captives were held in North Africa between the beginning of the seventeenth century and mid-eighteenth century" (Colley, 188; Yee 1). "
Abstract This paper analyzes John Demos' work entitled "An Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America". It is a response of sorts to John Williams publication of A Redeemed Captive, written in the early 18th century. The paper discusses the writing style, as well as the effect the author's use of dates and statistics has on the reader's enjoyment of the book.
From the Paper "John Demos' The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story From Early America is a narrative history regarding captivity by Indians in 18th century New England. As thus, it is written in a fictional manner, with the historical facts being processed as they likely were through the central characters. The writing style makes the book an appealing read, as the statistics, dates and facts are interspersed with a lively account of the situation at hand. In Chapter One, Demos begins by relating the Deerfield, Massachusetts Massacre, which occurred in February of 1704. Accounting first for the motives that spurred this incident, Demos then focuses on the Williams family, most of whom are taken captive to Canada by their French and Indian enemies."
Abstract The paper discusses, introduces, and analyze the book "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" by Mary Rowlandson. Specifically it discusses Rowlandson's captivity with the Indians, and her strong will to survive. The paper notes that captured by marauding Indians in 1675, Mary Rowlandson lived with the Native Americans for several weeks before her husband managed to ransom her. Her strong will to survive, coupled with her equally strong belief in God helped her survive the ordeal, and helped her write about it after it had ended.
From the Paper "Rowlandson's narrative shows how difficult it was to keep on going, and how frightened she was of what was to come. As they left the area she knew and loved, she feels nothing but sorrow and pain. She writes, "But now, the next morning, I must turn my back upon the town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate wilderness, I knew not whither. It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure" (Rowlandson). She did not know it then, but she would not see her home again for over three months, and when she returned, she would find nothing left standing, and no one but Indians in the area."
Abstract This paper analyzes John Deemos' ?The Unredeemed Captive? about the adoption of Eunice Williams by Indians at a time when the Puritan settlers of New England Colonies did not get on with their neighboring Indians. It discusses the Puritan's stereotype views of the Indians and how the only way to 'redeem' oneself if captured was by escape or by being freed. It tells the story of Eunice's capture and evaluates how this stereotype only increased Eunice's repulsion of how her father viewed the Indians,. making her adopt their way of life and marry an one of them and thus remaining "unredeemed".
From the Paper "The Mohawk Indians attacked the frontier village of Deerfield in 1704, taking a number of Puritans captive. The whole Puritan ? Indian cross-cultural encounter brought out the Puritan's view of other societies and how their lack of Puritanical beliefs made them savages, uncivilized and wild. On release, some captives decided to remain behind with the Indians, one of them being Eunice Williams, daughter of the Puritan minister John Williams. This horrified the other Puritans, as they could not understand how one would be willing to turn away from God and adopt heathenic ways ensuring their souls would never attain salvation."
Abstract Mary Rowlandson's description of her experiences being held captive by Indians during the Metacom Wars in17th century New England represent the birth of a narrative genre. What characterizes the Rowlandson's narrative as particular is both the vivid detail of her experience and the ways her survival is woven through the Calvinist doctrine's of New England's Puritan religious communities. The narrative itself represents the sheer trauma of Rowlandson's experiences in a language that appeals relentlessly to salvation discourse and it is apparent that her religious passions sustained her to some degree during her three months as a hostage with the Naragansett Indians. It is also difficult to deny the ways the narrative is written after-the-fact and represents a particular reconstruction of the experience. It is in reading the narrative is a context of post-traumatic writing that it becomes possible to understand how Rowlandson's writing constitutes a particular act of recovery.
Abstract This paper examines several research studies on the sexual and mating habits of orangutans, langur monkeys, bonobos and chimpanzees, each of which concluded that the sexual and reproductive behaviors of these primates is abnormal when the animals live in captivity.
From the Paper "Human researchers have always been deeply fascinated with primate behaviors because they are of much closer genetic relation than any other animals. Likewise, the studies of sexuality and mating social behaviors are of particular interest to people because, within human social structures, this area remains both mysterious and untamed, and at the same time entirely necessary for the survival of human relationships and survival of the species. Parallels that may offer some understanding of our own sexual and mating habits can be found in the observations made of Orangutans, Langur Monkeys, Bonobos, and Chimpanzees by various researchers."
Abstract This paper is written in the form of a debate over the book "The Captive Mind" by Czeslaw Milosz. The paper describes the book as exposition of the horrors generated by both the European tyrannies of the left and the right. It goes on to discuss the book from the point of Karl Marx and John Stewart Mill, who view the book from different angles.
Table of Contents:
Czeslaw Milosz (Moderator)
Karl Marx
Czeslaw Milosz
Karl Marx
John Stewart Mill
Karl Marx
John Stewart Mill
Karl Marx
John Stewart Mill
Karl Marx
John Stuart Mill
Czeslaw Milosz
Karl Marx
John Stewart Mill
Karl Marx
Czeslaw Milosz
From the Paper "Czeslaw Milosz: I would concur that it makes no difference. The situation of a writer in a so-called people's democracy is frighteningly similar to an oppressed writer under the tyrannies of olden times. Because of the ills spoken of in Marx's The Communist Manifesto that were suffered by the proletariat, the left may have found the terrible destructive potential of a powerful state initially worth bearing, in exchange for a more equitable society. In a society where religion had lost its power, the ideologies of the unity of the scholar, peasant, and proletarian seemed attractive to the alienated, modern individual in his or her quest for meaning, especially a quest for meaning that afflicted all of Europe after the horrors of World War II. But in actual practice, despite the seductions of intellectual satisfaction offered by leftist tyrannies that were not offered by rightist tyrannies, these leftist tyrannies were still that, ideological tyrannies, wolves in sheep's clothing."
This paper analyzes Czeslaw Milosz' position on the philosophy of John Stewart Mill and Karl Marx as presented in his 1959 collection of essays "The Captive Mind".
Abstract The paper explains that, in "The Captive Mind", dissident Polish author Czeslaw Milosz relates that Karl Marx and John Stewart Mill stand as polar opposites in the history of modern Western thought. The author points out that Marx is the defender of modern international communism; whereas, Mill is the defender of modern, parliamentary democracy. The paper states that, like Mill, Milosz defends the rights of the individual over that of the collective by saying that all governments must acknowledge what is most fundamental to the human condition, a desire for liberty.
From the Paper "In short, the individual can be deluded the farther he or she moves away from his or her sphere of knowledge. Individuals must have the allowance to learn from the different frames of reference of others, rather than have their interests assumed to be the part of something larger. Milosz makes critical defense of how associations of common persons, even oppressed persons, must be chosen and not imposed in terms of overarching theories like Marxism, as the individual's interests and frame of reference may vary from moment to moment in historical time and also in terms of place."
This paper discusses the Puritan way of thinking about salvation and race as exemplified in Mary Rowlandson's "The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson".
Abstract In this essay, the writer discusses the Puritan way of thinking about salvation and grace that is echoed within the end of Rowlandson's distinctly Puritan captivity narrative, "The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson". The writer points out that Mary Rowlandson's quest for self-analysis and self-revelation, within her autobiographical account of her time in captivity, centers on her individual relationship to God, before, during, and particularly after her ordeal. Further, the writer notes that Mary Rowlandson's account of her ordeal at the hands of Indians, and her survival of that ordeal, is in fact as much about how God helped her through the experience as it is about the experience itself.
From the Paper "Of central importance to Puritanism, as illustrated within the writings of John Winthrop; John Edwards, Mary Rowlandson, and others, is the idea of God's divine authority over human beings on earth, and, consequently, the importance of seeking salvation and grace, in both detailed personal and religiously abstract ways, through both individual and collective earthly deeds. The Puritans studied closely, and sought to obey, in individual ways and as a united group (see, for example, John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," a sermon delivered on the way to the New World, in which Winthrop stresses the importance of working as a united group toward salvation and grace), the words of God, as expressed within the Bible."
Tags: self-revelation, spiritually, experience, God
Abstract The paper discusses how "Sovereignty and Goodness of Good" by Mary Rowlandson is both typical and atypical of captivity narratives of the early American colonial period. The paper examines how the author refers to the Native-Americans as savages. However, as her captivity wore on, and her experiences with the Native-Americans grew more intimate, Mary Rowlandson began to show more compassion and balance in her point of view of the Native-Americans. The paper reveals her morality and culture and maintains that this personal adaptability, combined with a balance and generosity of spirit that marks Mary as a distinct voice, may have garnered Mary's greater acceptance by her captives. The paper adds that it also gains her an additional credit as a historical voice and testimony to early settler and Native conflicts.
From the Paper "It is true that Mary's religious language makes itself evident in the narrative early on. Mary paints the Native's conflicts with the settlers in black-and-white moral terms and demonstrates the similarity of her perspective with other captive women in her theological viewpoint. Mary's view of the events of her life as a playing-out of Biblical conflicts, rather than a struggle for amoral natural resources shows how her fundamental perspective is still united with the culture of her original English people, throughout her travels with the Indians."
