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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 (index to #2 samples) #2b: Short Essay (Favorite Term) |
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Nona Olivarez
Captivity Narratives as Origin Stories
The
captivity narrative sparked my interest because it remains a popular plot
throughout American Literature, and goes as far back to when Puritans first
settled in the Americas. When the Puritans began settling in America they ran
into numerous problems, one main problem being, America was already occupied by
Native Americans. Due to this fact, essentially war broke out between the
Europeans and the Native Americans, as the issue concerning ownership of land
continued to spark disagreement between the two cultures. As a result, Native
Americans were captured by Europeans, and similarly, Europeans were captured by
Native Americans. Typically, captivity narratives revolve around Europeans being
captured by Native Americans and are often romanticized. More importantly, the
insight derived from these captivity narratives provide information about Native
American’s that lends to the overall understanding of their culture, and
furthermore, the Europeans’ viewpoint towards said culture.
For
example, the captivity narrative of Mrs. Mary Jemison describes in detail the
life-changing event that took place early in her childhood, the raid by the
Shawnee Indians. During the raid, Mary, her siblings, and her parents are
captured, however only Mary survives as the others are killed and scalped. Mary
is then traded to the Seneca Indians where she is adopted into a Native American
family and renamed Deh-he-wä-mis.
Although Mary witnesses Native Americans murder her family, she adapts to their
way of life and assimilates herself into Native American culture accordingly,
even marrying and having children. When given the opportunity to leave, Mary
decides to stay, and never admitted to attempting an escape of any means
beforehand. Some may chalk this up
to Stockholm syndrome, but I think there is more to it. Mary was taken at a
young age and so she was more adaptable than an older person would be,
therefore, Native American culture became her way of life, and not many grown
adults can leave everything they know behind for a world they may not fit into
anymore. In addition, although Mary’s first experience with Native Americans was
cruel and frightening, the remainder of her experience appears overall pleasant.
She is accepted into her new Native American family as if she was their own,
and, for the most part is treated as an equal. And so the captivity narrative
becomes more than a story of a damsel in distress, but a story of a damsel
adapting and surviving without the need of being rescued in the end.
Additionally, the captivity narrative of Mary Jemison acts as an origin story
describing the events that occurred that led her to become who she was. In other
words, the origin of Deh-he-wä-mis is described through the captivity
narrative of Mary Jemison.
Another non-fiction captivity narrative is John Smith’s, “A General History of
Virginia”, which illustrates Smith’s encounter with Native Americans and more
specifically the Native Americans, Powhatan and Pocahontas. During his capture,
Smith is about to be killed when Pocahontas saves him from death. It appears the
traditionally male hero in this moment becomes the damsel, and the traditionally
female damsel becomes the hero. More significantly, like Mary Jemison, John
Smith is accepted into the tribe and then given a Native American name after
befriending the chief, Powhatan. Smith is not kept by force, but instead, has
the option to leave when he wants to, again similarly to Mary Jemison.
Furthermore, Smith’s captivity narrative can also be viewed as an origin story
because it describes how Smith’s connection and friendship to Powhatan and his
tribe came into being.
Conclusively, captivity narratives are important to American Literature because
they simultaneously function as origin stories that detail how beings come into
existing in their current reality. Also, captivity narratives, as mentioned
before, provide information pertaining to multicultural studies. In grade
school, I never learned accurate information concerning John Smith’s captivity
narrative, but instead knew the story of Pocahontas and John Smith through
Disney’s romanticized version by heart. Also, I never learned that Native
Americans often captured Europeans to seek vengeance and/or restitution for
loved ones lost at the hand of other Europeans. Hence, when Mary Jemison was
captured and then adopted she was actually taking the place of a deceased loved
one in her new Native American Family. Often times, history leaves out these
details and paints Native Americans as bloodthirsty monsters. So instead of
teaching stories that lend to the teachings of Dominant Culture, we should be
teaching from a Multicultural viewpoint, and by teaching captivity narratives,
cultural assimilation and Native American’s role in history outside of being
‘savages’ is displayed.
