Anyway, I found this article very intriguing. When I first read Rowlandson, I enjoyed her narrative very much - it was upbeat, exciting, adventurous, and she overcame adversity, all of these important ingredients to a good story. After finishing the journal article, however, I began to look at the story in a slightly different light.
It makes perfect sense, of course, that Rowlandson would have experienced the symptoms of "Survivors Syndrome." However, I find it curious that because of her role in Puritan society, she was expected to display her story as a divine sort of experience - which she does well. All throughout the story she consistently refers back to God and how he provided for her. But while I was reading it, I was so wrapped up in the "wow, I'm amazed at this woman and the way she devotes her praise to God despite her struggles" that I never stopped to think that she actually could have experienced some psychological trauma.
The article was also interesting in the fact that it gave me a better sense of what she was like as a woman and what she actually endured during her captivity. Historians do not know a lot of Rowandson, but this article helped me to be able to put a face to her outside of her narrative. I began to see her more of a real person, and because of that I felt like I also believed her story more.
I particularly appreciated the section where they described why she referred to her daughter as "it" throughout the narrative, rather than calling her by her name. The article says she more than likely experienced survivors guilt and by calling her daughter Sarah by "it" made it easier to cope with her guilt she felt over her death.
I have to say, I have a lot of respect for Mrs. Rowlandson. I can't say that I would come out of an experience such as hers as well off as she did.
I've been enjoying your connections between American Lit and Psychology :)
ReplyDeleteI too was so wrapped up in Rowlandson's enjoyable narrative that I never stopped to think that she probably was psychologically traumatized. I read the Rowlandson article, too, and it did change how I saw her writing. I wondered how much of her praise to God came from actual spiritual development and how much might have come from a culturally acceptable redirecting of the intense feelings she had about her captivity experience. Some? None?
You summarize the article well when you say that it does a good job conveying what Rowlandson endured in captivity :)
I also appreciated the article's discussion of--as you wonderfully put it--the problem of "it".
Kam,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting article...I kind of wish I had read it. I may have to go to the LMS and find it.
It's interesting to contemplate the psychological effects of the kidnapping, especially the combination of that with the immense loss Rowlandson suffered. I'm sure that would have been a very difficult burden to bear.
What are the symptoms of 'Survivor's Syndrome'? I don't think we talked about it in my psych class last year, or if we did, I can't remember what it was.
Did the article discuss the role her faith played in helping her work through the effects of this whole ordeal? I'd be interested to know how that played a role in the effects of 'Surivior Syndrome.'