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American Culture

According to Ronald Takaki in Chapter 2 of A Different Mirror, how does Mary Rowlandson’s narrative support his interpretation of events in the 1670? Find additional examples and quotations in the excerpt from Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative in the Kaleidoscope reader and relate them to Takaki’s interpretation.

According to Takaki, The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s plays can be used to explain a lot if attitudes and conceptions people have about the Americas and the development of race ideologies and concepts. This play was first released in 1611 and it served as a creation masquerade for a new American society (Takaki 25). Ireland was being invaded by the British and Caliban, a character in the Shakespeare play, was likened with the ‘wild Irish’ that was invaded by Britain. The author indicates that the English invaders destroyed Ireland for a period of two centuries, and even celebrated their triumph over the Irish people by taking slain Irish soldiers’ heads for trophies (27). In this chapter, the author likens these events with the play The Tempest which was really about the newly found world. In the view of the author, the name of Caliban was derived from cannibalism or cannibal. To him the obsession of the European colonizers of this period could be likened with cannibalism. The Indians, on the other hand, were likened to the devil by Takaki. They also represented other attributes such as sin, the body, laziness, sexuality and lack of self- control.

‘… On the surest ways to confirm an identity….. is to find some way of measuring what one is not….’ (Takaki 41). This is probably one of the most significant quotes in this chapter, emphasizing the need and interest of the author in identities. In the same chapter, Takaki relates or associates the narrative of Ki- wa- kwe- skew, which was another creature, thought to be the sister of the story’s main character, the cannibal. In the translations of the author, this creature was probably used to represent the oppressive Europeans.

The captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson in a way supports the interpretations made by Takaki in his book. Mary was captured by warring Indians who attacked the English people with cruelty. They killed children, babies, women and men and beheaded some of them. They burned people’s houses with people in them and took captive those who remained. The reason why Mary’s story can be used to support the interpretations of Takaki in chapter 12 is because they both have the same views of the Indians. Takaki indicated that Indians could be likened with the devils, with sinful people, who did not have self control. Mary, on the other hand, describes them in the same hateful manner. When she is taken by the Indians, she is taken to a deserted town where they camp for the night. Mary says that spending that night with them was the hardest thing with their ‘… roaring, and singing, and dancing and yelling of those black creatures in the night….’ (Rowlandson 23). She even likens the scene with hell. The same view of Takaki of Indians is supported by Mary when she calls them ‘… brute, savage, barbarous enemies…’ (Rowlandson 24). When she fell over the head of the horse she was placed on with her wounded child, she says that the Indians laughed at her like inhumane creatures, they even enjoyed seeing this happening (Rowlandson 25). This supports the interpretation of Takaki of Indians as devilish, sinful creatures that lacked self control. She also constantly refers to them as pagans and herself as Christian (Rowlandson 25). This further supports the translation by Takaki that the Indians were sinful and devilish creatures. Mary does not have any kind words for the Indians after they destroyed her life, took away her loved ones and destroyed her home. It is no doubt then that she has the same interpretations as Takaki of the Indians. She says that they are savage bears, and roaring lions who did not fear man, God, or even the devil. To her they were the devils themselves who brought mush suffering to her. Though she says they did not abuse her chastity, her descriptions of them show them as the sinful creatures without self control that Takaki talked about.

Both of these authors have a similar interpretation of the events that took place in the 1670s. Though Takaki has additional interpretations of the European who invaded Ireland, he also includes in his interpretations some opinions he had on Indians who went into war with the Europeans. Much of Mary’s text is about the Indians and how barbaric they were in their war. All in all, her description of the events that took place in the night she was captured supports the interpretations of Takaki of the same.

Works cited

Rowlandson, M. (n.d). A narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson: 20- 35.

Takaki, R.T. (2008). A different mirror: a history of multicultural America. New York: Little, Brown, and Co., 2008