A Confluence of Literary Devices in Early American Literature

In the aftermath of King Philip's War in early American society, Massachusetts Puritan Mary Rowlandson recorded her experiences as an "Indian" captive. In a vivid story that recollects the details of these events, Rowlandson attempts to impart a message to her community through the use of three existing literary devices. The genre of the "captivity narrative" that evolved is a distinct literary mode developed as a confluence of these: spiritual autobiography, a documentary method meant to archive spiritual and emotional growth through a record of daily activities; the conversion narrative, which made public one's theological assurance of God's grace; and the jeremiad, a sermon form designed to remind Puritans of their Covenant with God. To her contemporaries, Rowlandson served as an example of God's Providence. To later generations and specifically twenty-first century scholars, she represents the voice of a new genre of storytelling.