When something catastrophic happens in someone's life, it sometimes can be very difficult for them not to blame God for what has happened, but for Mary Rowlandson it isn't so hard.  Mary Rowlandson wrote a narrative describing the time period in which she was held captive by Indians.  She was tortured to the extreme, but yet the whole time she believed God had a reason for putting her through this pain.  She believed she must have deserved it.  This type of attitude was normal at this period of time for the Puritans.  Many captivity narratives like Mary Rowlandson's, especially written at this time and by the Puritans, related back to their religion as a reason for them going through something so difficult.

This article briefly discusses the captivity narrative and describes Mary Rowlandson's as "the best example of this type".  It describes her narrative as more of a testimony which portrayed a definite yearn for a Christian life among the English.  The religious symbolism is taken very seriously in her narrative.  I believe this is proven when this article points out that at the end of her narrative, Rowlandson does not even discuss reuniting with her husband and children but instead "closes the narrative with a list of providences that retroactively expose God's plan to test severely but ultimately deliver the Puritan project in New England".  Also, it is very important to note how popular the captivity narratives that relate back to religion are.  In this article it tells how Rowlandson's story appeared in published sermons, in publishers' reports, and as advertisements in the back of books.  Having a religious intake on situations such as captivities were apparently very important to the Puritan life.

This article describes Rowlandson's narrative as "a bitter and violent text", but yet she is still praising God for His "goodness and mercy".  So, even though Rowlandson describes her terrible and violent experience, it is still very important to be sure and also praise God for putting her through all of it.  It seems almost contradictory, but yet this is very typical for Puritans to see God in all that they do, even if it is something terrible that has happened to them they still praise Him for it.

In this text the author discussed how captivity narratives affected women.  It said that captivity narratives by women showed that conversion could be more of an individual thing rather than "a corporate covenantal experience."  This is important because people like Rowlandson were able to show other women that they are able to convert on their own. 

In conclusion, I believe that many captivity narratives, especially Mary Rowlandson's, purposely relate back to religion in order to make sense of the tragic event that took place.  In this exhibit I mostly referred to Rowlandson's narrative, because I believe that her story was the best example of what I was arguing.  I not only discussed particular examples of her relating particular events to God, but I also discussed why it was so important for especially women to write these kind of stories as religious experiences.  All together I believe that it was extremely important for narratives to be related back to religion at this particular point in time.