Religion vs. Realism
Thus, on one hand, the religious narrative situates the individual in a God-centred universe. For instance, The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is expressed through the point of view of a devoted Christian held captive in the presence of heathen savages. The narrator related the events purposively as if they were preordained. Her struggle meant that her beliefs are being strengthened through time and her sufferings meant that salvation is close at hand. This kind of devotional genre only mimic or at least generate close resemblance to stories found in the ancient biblical texts. Mostly there is the exposition of spirituality based on experience and emotion rather than on reason.
On the other hand, Realism stressed the importance of the individual in the world. Ralph Waldo Emersons (1841) Self-Reliance essay is a primer about how man can rise above himself and society by ignoring the socially imposed limitations. By living in the present and attending to and developing a sense of autonomy and independence, an individual is empowered by the belief that he can make his own destiny if he only works hard enough. The reliance on oneself eloquently speak of the radical changes of the attitudes of society brought about mainly by the Industrial Revolution in America where each person has to carry his own eight in order to be useful to society. Religion still played a major role in the life of a person but the Realists give accentuated the natural abilities of man as the lynchpin to his success and the success of the society.
The beginning of Theological writing or literature with religious elements dates as far back as the spread of Christianity in Europe. However, it was not until Christians became more comfortable in expressing thoughts and ideas in simple and accessible language did religion as a narrative mode developed and spread. Almost all theological literature stressed faith and devotion to God and strict adherence to the teachings of the Bible.
The basic axiom was that man must strike the path of righteousness and the good in order to curry the favor of God and eventually ensure an afterlife in His presence. It is widely believed that everything that happens to a person is the consequence of preordained trial as a test of ones faith or a punishment for sins committed. At any rate, the literary genre is known for its unique brand of fatalism, mystic and divine faith. As such, it was common to find quotations of scriptures in tandem with the narrative account of the life of a person told in the perspective of a repentant and devoted believer.
The religious narrative mode is also an indispensible tool which generally had a proselytizing effect over its readers. It is used generally to highlight the stark differences of a Christian and the pagans. Once the distinctions are drawn then the next step is conversion to the faith. Likewise, a person was either civilized or uncivilized simply because of religion. This literary motif can be best demonstrated during the start of the 17th century America. American literary history saw the rise in popularity of the narrative of captivity.
During the early years of the development of the American nation and the forging of the American identity, settlers and pioneers faced a savage and brutal enemy. Native American Indians embodied the uncivilized heathens that needed to be converted. In the eyes of the Christian author, their way of life and belief systems were clearly at odds with the Christian and Western hegemony. It therefore comes as no surprise that the writings dealt more with the obvious differences and less with the subtle similarities of the two cultures and peoples.
The narrative of captivity as a derivative of Theological writing and Western idealism showcased a sense of superiority of belief, faith in deliverance from the captives and the inevitable outward expansion of the American frontier and the dominance of the Christian European Americans. In other words, there is the element of manifest destiny where the good will eventually prevail over the bad and the non-believers. The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson in this regard is a perfect example of the interplay of religion and the sense of deliverance and victory over the savage unbelievers.
What is immediately apparent in the narrative is that it was written to retell the events leading to the captivity of Mary Rowlandson, the circumstances during her stay with the American natives and until her inevitable ransom from her captors. The narrative is told in a religious point of view and in the first person. The book captured the imagination of many and was widely read most likely because of its value as a Christian and a New World text. It was to be the first among many similar stories which recounted the capture of a puritan white woman by the Indians and her survival despite overwhelming odds. The book is of literary and historical significance since it primarily glorified the word of God in the same degree as it glorified the enduring struggle, character and strength of the settlers during that time.
Rowlandson lifted quotes from the Bible numerous times during the entire narrative as she recounts her life with the Indians. According to Richard VanDerBeets (1984), who wrote a scholarly biographical account of Mary Rowlandson and her works, the constant reference to the passage was a means to place her life in parallel with the stories in the Bible and the saints. Undoubtedly, Rowlandson suffered many ordeals such as the loss of friends and families on the day the Indians ransacked the English settlement, involuntary servitude with an Indian master, hunger and fatigue at times when her Indian captors trekked the lands to avoid English scouts, and utter isolation from the world she has sorely missed. The narration of each of these sufferings is punctuated with quotes from the Bible.
The quotes basically are devotional and one of repentance which gave Rowlandson the strength to survive and inspired her to continue to worship God. Thus on the first week of her capture and upon learning the death of her child she reads from the Bible Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
She pins her hope of survival and deliverance upon this single passage which to her was a sweet cordial when (she) was ready to faint and many and many a time have (she) sat down and wept sweetly over (that) scripture. VanDerBeets (1984) further argues that precisely because of the intersecting points between certain biblical passages and real life experiences the entire story of captivity had a salutary effect to the Christian believer and was likewise morally instructive. The entire theme of the narrative further encourages its readers to find comfort in the holy texts especially at a time when the untamed frontiers were ruled by barbarous creatures.
Put differently, the captivity narrative of Rowlandson reveals a kind of society that is fixated on the idea that everything happens for a reason. The captivity is akin to a religious pilgrimage where the main protagonist goes through a series of removesor a gradual movement towards a higher plane of divine existence. The suffering is part of the spiritual journey of the author. Consequently, in the course of such a journey, the cultural divide between the West and the American Natives becomes more pronounced. It is thus argued that Rowlandson was put at the very middle where she mentally and spiritually identifies herself with her Christian beliefs while at the same time she is an involuntary participant in the cultural construct of the Native Americans (Derounian, 1988). She confesses that (she) can but stand in admiration to see the wonderful power of God in providing for such a vast number of our enemies in the wilderness, where there was nothing to be seen, but from hand to mouth.
In a contrary sense however, the individual character in the Realist construct is much less subservient to the idea of pre-destiny and the feeling of helplessness as with Rowlandson during her captivity. Man is not chained to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841), a Romantic writer and a proponent of Realist thought, further adds in his essay Self-Reliance that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the center of things (1841). Unlike the religious narrative, the realist construct eschews the fantastic and the supernatural in favor of the real and rational.
Historically, Realism became a prevalent narrative mode if not a dominant genre precisely because of the radical changes in the way people saw the world at the turn of the 20th century. Before the American Industrial Revolution writers and philosophers placed emphasis on the ideal existence of man. Man was envisioned to be at parity with his peers and was thought of possessing inherent characteristics of goodness, talent and equal rights from birth. The idea was expressed in unmeasured lyric and flowing language, which expression oftentimes lead to the idealization of a person regardless of circumstances, creed or education. The celebration of the individual self was the thematic largess of Romanticism on humanity and the society in general.
Romantics believed that each person was equipped with a set of common abilities to develop and mature oneself to perfection. Similar to the religious narrative mode of writing whereby it is proposed that the individual can achieve the ideal state by the worship of God and by treading the path laid out by the Bible, the Romantics were convinced that the individual must live in a certain way in order realize his potentials. However, due to the emergence of rational thought, the advent of objectivism and the increasing urge for quantified analysis and the reliance over the scientific method, it was soon realized that the idealism had to square with undeniable factual truths. Idealism was replaced with practical considerations taking into account different contexts of real life. While the individual still enjoyed centrepiece treatment in any story in almost the same Romantic manner, there developed a slant towards the complex interrelationship of the individual and society.
Writers magnified the details of the American society at the grassroots level. Class relations and the extant socio-political environment of the time were used as a backdrop to present man as a vulnerable individual and to showcase his day to day struggles. The natural consequence of this narrative mode was to move towards the complete and accurate depiction of man and society (Campbell, 1997). Realist literature portrayed man in a way as to come close to the real thing as it actually happens without the hype and drama, and the other irrational and sensational Romantic elements. In order to achieve this level of verisimilitude the characters and the plot were wrought in every way that was plausible and intuitive to the readers. Furthermore, other main differences between Realism and Romanticism include the use of simple and less verbose language and the use of images instead of complex metaphors.
Once again, the Self-Reliance essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841) drives home the main argumentation of the Realist thinkers. Conformity is the plague of the new age according to Emerson. He says that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. This is a criticism directed not only against the Romantic Movement but could probably stand as a critical response to the religious narrative which basically shared common elements with Romanticism. Emerson (1841) claims that the prevalent use of the scriptures and the blind reliance to faith as a talisman for self-serving ends are hindrances to the growth of an individual. Thus the relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure that it is profane to seek to interpose helps (1841). As if commenting on the thematic element in Rowlandsons narrative where the narrator constantly sought refuge and comfort in the Bible, Emerson (1841) rejects the notion that man is without power to deliver himself from the bonds that hold him captive be it the society, the uncivilized brutes or conventional religious institutions.
The differences in the treatment of the character and the narrative only serve to highlight the popular sentiments of a society. Still the means in which the character and narrative are portrayed and wrought show the common sensibilities of man as he is actually situated and exposed to the historical realities of the era. The religious narrative and Realism may be at polar extremes yet the focal point still is the individual identity as a response to the status quo.
Ultimately, the narrative modes of religion and Realism are alike in that these literary genres seek to find the appropriate worldview for an individual to adopt. It is not argued that either narrative point-of-view is more correct than the other but that both are merely the derivatives of the historical realities. It is oftentimes said that literary developments are closely tied with the progress of American history and the formation of the American identity. In the end, Rowlandson and Emerson justify their ideas with a narrative by which the individual is placed at the middle and everything else become details to his eventual glorification under any historical context and factual circumstances.
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