Mary Rowlandsons Captivity Narrative, The Sovereignty And...

Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, and Charles Brockden Brown’s novel Edgar Huntly were both written during a time of discovery, exploration, and the questioning of identity in America. The frontier was considered the wild place of the unknown, and in these two works, the wilderness of the frontier and characters of â€Å"civilized† society interact to form compelling stories. Mary Rowlandson’s narrative and Brown’s novel Edgar Huntly both use the theme of savagery, in which the world of the frontier enables self-proclaimed â€Å"civilized† people to rationalize savage behavior, showing that everyone has the capability of savagery, and all have inner, dark impulses that are an inherent part of one’s human†¦show more content†¦In another instance she consumed raw horse-liver which she described in this manner: â€Å"I was forced to take the rest and eat it as it was, with the blood abo ut my mouth, and yet a savory bit it was to me; for to the hungry soul every bitter thing was sweet† (Rowlandson 68). Her description of eating the horse liver with the image of the â€Å"blood about her mouth† is particularly savage and would normally by associated only with the Native Americans. She attempts to justify her behavior with her desperate hunger, and this further reveals the ability of the frontier to create a world in which the â€Å"civilized† attempt to rationalize their own savage behavior. After she later ate a piece of fawn so tender that she was able to eat the bones as well as the flesh, Rowlandson relied upon her faith and credited God for making the normally detestable food delicious to her. She portrays the food as a gift from God when she states, â€Å"I would tell the world what a blessing the Lord gave to such mean food† (Rowlandon 76). This also reveals Rowlandson’s shifting perspective in the narrative as to what is and is not considered savagery; At the beginning of the novel, a Native American committing these same actions would have been considered by Rowlandson to be the most â€Å"barbarous heathen.† Perhaps one of Mary Rowlandon’s most barbarous actions occurred during the eighteenth remove when she stole a piece of horse meat from a child. Rowlandson describes the incident