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(2014
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2014 #2b: Short Essay (Favorite Term) |
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Sarah Robin Roelse
March 1, 2014
The Captivity Narrative as Seen Through the Eyes of Modernity
We have covered many conceptualistic types
of writing in a very short time during this class; from my own personal view
point, I would have to say that I find the idea of captivity narratives
extremely exciting! The captivity
narrative began as settlers started building their homes around the Native
American peoples and wars or fights broke between them over varying issues such
as food or land; many times, these raids ended with murder on both sides or
prisoners being taken – the stories that we most often hear from are accounts of
captives taken into the Native American lifestyle.
Many of the captivity stories that have endured through time often show
up in much of today’s entertainment such as movies, novels, and even in true
crime (which is not entertainment, just mere unfortunateness which applies to
the readings).
In Mary Jemison’s account of her captivity,
she loses her whole family to a group of scalping Indians; this is something
that many people have heard of as common, that these Indian people are ‘savages’
who are only out for blood. What I
find most interesting in the account of Jemison is the fact that she assimilates
so nicely into her new Native American surroundings – despite the harshness that
she has witnessed on a firsthand account from her captors.
While it may have been easier for her to grow accustomed to her new
lifestyle, that didn’t mean she had to love it – she had more than one
opportunity to run away or be let free, yet she chose to stay with the tribe.
I do not think that this was because of Stockholm syndrome, but rather
because Mary would have no place to go without her new family.
As a girl in her early-to-mid teenage years, she really didn’t have many
options, and by the time she might have had a reliable escape plan, she was
already too far into her new culture to leave.
Assimilation can be much easier on a child or teenager than it can for
someone who is already so set in their ways, perhaps leaving wasn’t an option
because she wouldn’t know how to function back in a white world.
I think that by looking at the captivity
narrative as a romance, or even an origin story, would be accurate as well.
In a sense, Mary became a completely new person, yes she retained a few
of her white culture’s characteristics, but ultimately she morphed into someone
new and changed. As far as looking
as the captivity as a romance, there is lots of love and idealism in the story –
Mary does marry twice, she loves her new Indian family, she creates a family of
her own with two different men, and there is a touch of tragedy to her life in
the Native American culture; all of this combined creates a stage for a perfect
romantic setting with tones of realism and tragedy.
Other captivity narratives, like that of
Mary Jemison’s, are similar in the sense that people did in fact have the
freedom to leave – while this may not have been the case in all situations, it
has been in the majority of the stories we’ve looked over, including John
Smith’s adventures with Powhatan
and Pocahontas. John Smith’s
account can be analyzed in a multitude of ways; it falls into the genre of
captivity narrative, ‘romance,’ and origin stories as well.
John Smith may not have necessarily been recognized widely throughout the
Tsenacommacah tribe that Powhatan was chief over, the fact that he was finally
accepted as a sort of bipartisan member who had a say in tribal matters crosses
the barriers of both origin story and captivity narrative.
This genre crossing comes in the form of Smith and Powhatan befriending
each other – a matter which would have not previously happened under normal
circumstances, and the general circumstance that Smith was initially taken as a
prisoner. The fact that this story
is skewed into the romantic section of historical non-fiction is definitely
over-played; the real romanticism is not between Smith and Pocahontas, but
rather the relationship that Smith forms with Powhatan – this is what we would
refer to as a ‘casual bromance’ in modern terms, where two men tolerate and
respect each other on a deeper level than just acquaintances.
I enjoy the concept of the captivity
narrative so much because it is still something which is widely used throughout
our everyday lives; we see instances of this in movies, songs, news media,
etc... I think that because it is
so popular that that’s why it catches my attention; it makes me ask myself why
the world is so obsessed with seeing these captivity stories and turning their
heads completely to them; it’s almost like a bad car accident which we can’t
help but dwell on. I can see the
general hype and interest in it for myself, as well as others; it
is exciting to see how a dramatic
story will play out and what kind of ending it will procure.
Compared to other genres, such as conventional romanticism and
naturalism, I find the captivity narrative a much more attractive, simply
because it draws the reader in and creates a sense of unknowing for them.
