SOURCE: “Puritan Orthodoxy and the ‘Survivor Syndrome’ in Mary Rowlandson's Indian Captivity Narrative,” in Early American Literature, Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring, 1987, pp. 82-93.

In the following essay, Derounian argues that the narrative duality in Rowlandson's work is the result of a tension between her religion and the psychological trauma she endured during her captivity..

“Deut. 32.29, See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me: I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal neither is there any can deliver out of my hand.”

(From the title page to the Cambridge “second Addition” 1682 and Cambridge “second Edition” 1682 of Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity narrative)

The earliest captivity narrative to be published as a single book, Mary Rowlandson's only work became an immediate best-seller in America and went through four editions in 1682, the year of its publication. For almost two hundred years, Rowlandson's captivity...