Reflection Blog # 1

When I was reading these two literary works, I noticed something Rowlandson and Bradstreet both commonly spoke about. They all spoke about God and just their type of religion in general. It seemed like the main theme throughout both of them. Not only do they express God, but they go to God to help them in some way, which is what most people do if they start to believe in "God" or some type of religion. Then there was also the melancholy-ness of the stories. There is also the obvious of the different types of words they use. They don't use "cool" or "awesome" obviously! They use words like "shall" (which I actually still use sometimes.) and "e'er". (Bradstreet 91) I won't go into anymore about that part, though, because language is definitely going to be different in the 1660's than in 2011.

In A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson(shocker I know) she kept on referring back to bible verses very often (to the point where it kind of got annoying, but I think there was suppose to be a little repetition). It was helping her get through the tough times she was having, like not being able to eat and lying next to dead bodies (Rowlandson 83). She is constantly looking up to God and despite all of her troubles and misery that she is going through, she doesn't kill herself because she doesn't think that God would like that and would be disappointed in her for that (Rowlandson 83).

“Upon the Burning of Our House” is a poem by Anne Bradstreet. She also is constantly mentioning God in this. In this poem, her house is burning down. Of course, it's a little shocking, scary and depressing to see your house burn down into ashes, but she comes to think of it as something that God wanted to happen. That it was meant to be. She tries not to think about what she is loosing, but the fact that she still has her husband. If he is okay, then nothing else like material items really matters (Bradstreet 91).

Another thing that I have noticed in these stories is that they are not happy in anyway. They can be quiet depressing from time to time. From burning houses to dead people and dying babies to starving. Though, there is a little shed of light because of the God that they believe in(again). They are not too depressing, though, because of these little parts of happiness. A good example is from “Upon the Burning of Our House”; She was depressed at first because of the house burning down, but then she realized that there were just material things in there, so as long as she and her husband were fine, then it wasn't too bad. This kind of taught her a lessen as to what the important things are in life, which all of us need to realize every now and again too keep us from being greedy (Bradstreet 91).


Rowlandson, Mary. A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph. D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 82-85. Print.


Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph. D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 91. Print.