Subject and Question for Research

Post the subject/issue and big idea question that you will research for your presentation.

Mary Rowlandson

While Mary Rowlandson's narrative may not be the coolest story every written, it is a fascinating captivity narrative that is both an insight into Puritan culture and an individual's spiritual survival.  Mary Rowlandson's colonial settlement was attacked by Native Americans.  She witnessed the tragic deaths of many close to her before being taken captive by this group.  She wrote, "Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in their blood, the house on fire over heads, and the bloody heathen ready to knock us on the head, if we stirred out"(128).  Rowlandson faced a strong personal fear for both her physical safety as well as her spiritual state.  She described the Native Americans as "murderous wretches" and "merciless heathens."  Choosing "to go along with those ... ravenous beasts," shows a strength and courage in Rowlandson.  The Puritans believed that God saved on a select few, and they searched for signs that they were chosen.  The attack and capture by the Native Americans raised questions about Rowlandson's ultimate fate, and the Puritans also believed the Indians were likely allies of the devil due to their paganism.  She wrote, "Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell."(130)  Many would respond to this situation with great fear and questioning, but Rowlandson seems to find comfort and strength through God.  For a Puritan, exposure to anything resembling hell would be quite terrifying.  While Rowlandson initially views her captivity as possibly due to her disappointing or angering God.  "I then remmberedhow careless I had been of God's holy time; how many Sabbaths I had lost and misspent, and how evilly I had walked in God's sight."

"An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge"

This is a cool story.  While Ambrose Bierce is currently not as popular as Poe or revered as Twain, he crafted a story that is engaging in both its entertainment and its thought.  We anticipate and cheer for Peyton's escape as Bierce shows with great imagery and psychological thought the desperation to escape home. "The hunted man saw all this over his shoulder, he was now swimming vigorously with the current.  His brain was as energetic as his arms and legs; he thought with the rapidity of lightning."  We think he has pulled a Maximus, but then we gasp as the narrator quickly and coldly tell us "Peyton Farquahar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge."  Done, over, dead.  So what was this "Occurrence" that happened on the bridge?  At least Maximus was able to kill the evil Commodus before falling to his death.  Maximus died a here, but what does Peyton die?

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was the new American poet.