Holly Davis Anderson
Dr. Craig White
American Romanticism
September 27, 2003

Midterm Exam: Individual in Nature, the Captivity Narrative, and Gothic Environment

The genre of American Romanticism literature is a complex blend of style, speech, and setting.  It is an intellectual literary form that has been identified to a specific time and place, which often includes a narrative description of a quest or a journey.  The stories usually develop a protagonist who experiences a loss, display rebellious attitudes, or will view his world with idealistic optimism. Romantic writers often use the wilderness as the preferred setting for their stories and the native Indians as the antagonists that must be conquered or at least tolerated--how this is done is the point of the stories.

I will discuss three of the many elements of romanticism literature.  The first involves the romantic spirit, where there is a need for individualism.  The idea of individualism for the romantic writer is that a situation desires the person to discover or depend on interpersonal strengths in order to survive. Finding himself in an unfamiliar environment, he must use strength, cunning, and intellect to save himself and others from certain doom. The second element involves the style of writing known as captivity narrative. As such, the story describes the pursuit and capture of the person--usually by Indians--and his life during this captivity, ending with his escape or release.  Finally, the third element involves the development of the gothic setting. Writers used the setting of woods in much the same way as his European counterpart used castles to create a dark, chaotic, or foreboding atmosphere.

Captain John Smith, Mary Rowlandson, and Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans are all examples of the romantic spirit of individualism in nature.  Beginning with John Smith, he is described as a man who from the time he was sixteen desired adventure; he found it by fighting other countries wars, joining a ship full of people to a new world, and brazenly attempting a dramatic relationship with the local natives.  In addition, he had enemies who wanted to see him hang for unethical behaviors.  However, in his writings, The General History of Virginia, his individualism was his greatest strength and with that, he remains an interesting figure in American history and literature.  Through his writings, he describes his capabilities as a leader in the colony of Virginia. After all, he says, ”by his own example, good words, and fair promises, set some to mow, others to bind thatch, some to build houses […] himself always bearing the greatest task for his own share,” (46) he shows how he is the one responsible for the success of this colony. 

Unfortunately, the colonists need for supplies forced Smith to seek out the Indians, in hopes to initiate a trade. Smith describes how he and a company of six or seven went looking for the Indians, knowing they had very little to use for trade.  Therefore, by using his cunning, “he made bold to try such conclusions as necessity enforced; […] he let fly his muskets, ran his boat on shore; whereat they all fled into the woods” (46). Eventually, he persuades the Indians to give him the supplies he needs and if they do as he requests he will not only return their god, but he will also be their friend.  This situation required John Smith to use his wits and to count primarily on himself.

When Mary Rowlandson describes her attack and capture by Indians in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Rowlandson, she describes in detail how she tried to keep her family safe from the Indians, and then how she tried to fight off her attackers, finally how she was wounded by a bullet and taken captive.  Jane Ftacnik in her student paper of 2000 stated that Mary demonstrates her individualism by relying upon her inner strength to survive the attack from the Indians. She survives the attack on her house and has the courage to come out and face the weapons of the Indians.   

This courage continues day after day while she is in captivity, Mary finds the strength to continue because of her faith in God, which gives her faith in herself.  Mary uses the reference to Job 16:2 in her writings when she says, “[T]his was the comfort I had from them, miserable comforters are ye all, as he said” (140) as she was forced to endure the slow painful death of her child.  From her experience in captivity Mary did not succumb to the difficulties she had to endure, quite the opposite, she was satisfied to wait until the right time, she was “not willing to run away, but desired to wait God’s time, that I might go home quietly, and without fear” (148).  Mary’s individualism is her key to survival in the worst of conditions. She understands, for her God will give her all she needs to be strong. Because of her strength, she is able to transcend her unfortunate experience.

In Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye uses cunning like John Smith and perseverance like Mary Rowlandson to help show another side of the Indian culture.  In this story, a white man illustrates his individualism by developing skills and a lifestyle like those of the Indians and with this lifestyle an appreciation for the nature around him. Throughout the story, Hawkeye uses his skills, cunning, and experience to rescue captured white people and fight with his enemies.  Cooper describes him as “like that of one who had known hardships and exertion from his earliest youth” (29). Hawkeye is also proud of who he is and the reputation he has among the Indian people, he understands the Indian way of life, however, he is still a white man.  Hawkeye asserts who he is when he says “’I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an Iroquois, daren’t deny that I am genuine white,’” (31) a point he will make again in this story.  Cooper sets Hawkeye apart from his white counterparts and clearly makes it known he is not an Indian either, he is his own individual self.

All three of these stories have as their central theme that of the captivity narrative.  The pattern for this type of writing, whether it is non-fiction or fiction; it consists of the attack, the struggle, the life while in captivity and the final escape or release.  In each story the ones doing the attacking and capturing are always the “heathens,” “savages,” or “barbarians.”  John Smith tried to fight off as many as 200 Indians by himself, “yet he was shot in thigh a little, and had many arrows that stuck in his clothes[…]till at last they took him prisoner” (48).  Mary Rowlandson describes her traumatic ordeal of being captured in vivid detail as she watches mother and children taken from each other, the slaughter of those she loved including her own sister killed by “merciless heathen[s].”   The victims in Last of the Mohicans found themselves surrounded in a cavern the first time they were taken captive and had no choice but to go with them or fear being killed on the spot. Cooper describes this moment as, “peering just above the ledge […] he beheld the malignant, fierce, and savage features of le Renard Subtil” (87).

In all three instances, it becomes apparent that the purpose of the captivity is not that these individuals were to be used as slaves, but more likely as bartering tools, or as revenge against some perceived enemy. In the cases of Smith and Rowlandson, there was an exchange of goods, money, or acceptance by the tribe.  However, in the case of   Last of the Mohicans the captives needed to be rescued, because their captor did not want slaves as much as he wanted to take revenge on the man that he hated--and what better way then to take captive this man’s daughters.   

Captivity narratives served as a writing style to demonstrate how brutal the native Indians were to white people and to each other, romanticizing them as noble savages.  Consequently, Indians for many years was misunderstood, and were viewed as barbarians needing to be Christianized and changed from their heathen ways. Another attribute of the captivity narrative, is that the captive person is likely to grow and transcend from the experience.  Mary Rowlandson for example, formulated a deeper meaning to the quality of her life. The last statement of her story demonstrates the new attitude she has since her ordeal, “If trouble from smaller matters begin to arise in me, I have something at hand to check myself with, and say, why am I troubled? It was but the other day that if I had had the world, I would have given it for my freedom, […]” (152).   I believe this is her message to anyone who reads her story.  

The final element of romanticism writing to discuss is the gothic setting.  Cooper is meticulous at describing the heavily wooded areas the traveling party must endure.  For example, after resting in a block house there is a moment of concern when they believe discovery by hostile Indians is imminent.  When that moment passes and it is time to move on, Cooper describes the reaction of the sisters as “casting furtive glances at the silent grave and crumbling ruin, as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury them selves in the gloom of the woods” (133).  Cooper foreshadows that the sisters realize the woods to be a place that feels them with apprehension about an uncertain destiny.  

Rowlandson uses the atmosphere of the woods to impress on the reader that she had to endure terror at the hands of her captors. She describes clearly the scene of the massacre as a “solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their blood, […] stripped naked by a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting […]” (137) impressing how brutally these Indians had attacked these unsuspecting Christians.  She writes of the negative aspects of Gothic, which include, dark, oppressive, and unimagined horrors. She then explains how she must leave her destroyed town and go with the Indians who have captured her, “I must turn my back upon the town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate wilderness” (138).   Using descriptive language such as this give the reader a true sense of the hardships Rowlandson had to endure.  

Smith’s story also describes his interactions with the Indians, which does not reflect the deep gothic feel of the first two stories.  There is a sense that Smith, even when captive, is always in control.  For instance, his men have been killed and he is about to be killed, at which point he shows them a round ivory double compass.  He proceeds to explain the ways of his world, “and how we were to them antipodes and many other such like matter, they all stood as amazed with admiration” (49) and shortly afterwards is led to the king and the process for his release begins.  Smith’s story lacks the same ominous, intense feeling that Rowlandson or Cooper has in their writings. 

American romanticism literature has a texture to the writing that was as interesting as it was intellectual which evolved into a timeless style of writing.  The European influence is evident in many of the experiences that were written about, mimicking the ideas of knights, castles, and villains.  However, the scope of the topics initially was limited to the places and events that were happening around them.  For many of the writers the setting was equally as important as the characters.  American romanticism writers were able to create complex stories in their unsophisticated and sometimes hostile environments.