Reading and Study Questions for Week Five: Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

1. How does Joseph Rowlandson illustrate the appropriate relation between Man and God? What does that tell us about the connection between family and State (in this case the Puritan nation, or God's "People") and how those associations are structured?. (160-62

2. What happens to Rowlandson's family at the beginning of the narrative? At the end? How does that reflect what happens to Rowlandson's relation to the Puritan community generally, and to God? (1^st and 20^th Removes)

3. Why did Rowlandson originally want to be afflicted? How did affliction change her mind? In what way does she say it was good that she was afflicted? How does it alter her place in the community? (111-12)

4. Why does Rowlandson persuade another captive not to escape when she has the chance, and why doesn't Rowlandson herself escape when she has the chance? (77, 107 How does that compare to Hannah Dustin's attitude? (165-68)

5. How does Rowlandson explain the kindnesses the Indians show her from time to time? Is she consistent about that? Given her attitude, could such kind gestures be interpreted as a "social instinct" to form a new kind of association across cultures? (93, 79)

6. Are there any ways in which Rowlandson and the Indians do "associate" as if they were part of the same society or culture? (83, 87)

7. What can we learn about Indian families from these accounts of Metacom’s War? What happened to many of those families after the war? (37, 91, 166-67, etc.)

8. What do the Indians do when Sarah dies? Why? (75, 86, 91)

9. According to Joseph Rowlandson, why do the Indians attack the Puritans, and what does that tell us about the kind of association that forms the Puritan State or Nation? (156-58) Does Rowlandson agree? (40, 69-71, 101, 105, ) According to Rowlandson, why can't the English army catch the Indians and rescue her? (105, 106)

10. What does Rowlandson eat, how, and why? Why are food and eating so important to Rowlandson in her narrative? (79, 81, 83, 85, 93, 96, 101, etc.)

11. Why are the Indians often disgusted by Rowlandson? (83, 93, 96)

12. What were Praying Indians, and what was their role in the relations between Indians and English? What does Mary Rowlandson think of them? (23, 98)

13. How does Rowlandson describe the way Indians dress, and how is that related to forms of association among the Indians, and between Indians and the English? (97, 103; cf. 94)

14. When Rowlandson sinks so far into despair that she cannot express how miserable she is, how does she describe that experience? (78)

15. Why does Rowlandson write her narrative? To what motive does she fear others will attribute her writing? (67, 107)