Michael Anderson
American Dreams/ American Nightmares
Eng 217-14
2/5/2011
Struggle Only Makes You Stronger
What does it mean to struggle? The dictionary describes struggle as to contend with an adversary or opposing force. As human we are faced with different struggles every day we open our eyes and take that first big breath of air. In “The Narrative of the Captivity,” the “Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” and “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”; Benjamin and Mary were overwhelmed with struggle. If I had to create a theme for these stories I would write in big letters on both covers the word struggle. Mary Rowlandson was forced to watch her family die and dragged away while trying to keep her faith throughout the ordeal; in Benjamin Franklin’s story he was constantly being thrown into careers and ripped out of others with all this happening he is forced to find his own success. Benjamin and Mary both have experienced struggles in different ways but their determination to overcome those struggles only made them stronger. You can almost say that one must struggle to truly to become strong.
Franklin’s story displayed a struggle that was considerably different from that of Mary Rowlandson. Franklin’s struggle was that of a young man reaching for the stars and being held back by his surroundings; he knew from an early age that was not going to be able take the scholarly path through life. “But my father, in the meantime, from a view of the expense of a college education, with having such a large family he could not well afford.” No matter what time period education is essential to growth scholarly. In Franklin’s time period the father played a key role in the future of their sons; often the father was the one who decided what trade their sons would establish a career in. Which meant that their son’s opinions were often forgotten or unheard in the choosing process as was Franklin’s. “I disliked the trade and had a strong inclination for the sea but my father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much in and about it, learn early to swim well, and to manage boats.” Benjamin had a dream of spending his life on the ocean waters and his dad was that opposing force holding him back. From reading the story you get the feeling that Franklin had the drive to be successful in a lot of fields but was always ripped away before he got too deep.
Benjamin talked about his ability to excel in school also. “…though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into the next class above it.” Benjamin Franklin was like a rat in a maze just when he thought he was going the right way there would be a wall blocking him. “….there was all appearance that I was destined to supply his place, and become a tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was under apprehensions that if he did not find one for me more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as his son Josiah had done,” But just like rats in a maze would just turn around try another way to reach that cheese at the end of the maze. For Benjamin it was first the ocean that he strode for and later in the book it seemed as though he had the thirst for knowledge and success. “This bookish inclination at length determined my father to make me a printer, though he had already one son (James) of that profession…. I liked it much better that of my father, but still had a hankering for the sea.” Mary Rowlandson story was considerably different that of Benjamin, Mary’s struggle involved religious belief and death.
Mary
The story starts with Indians scrambling through her town killing everybody they saw; Mary had to sit and watch as people were being shot all around her home, this is where her struggles begin and you understand how much faith she has in God. “We had six stout dogs belonging to our garrison, but none of them would stir, though another time, if any Indian had come to the door, they were ready to fly upon him and tear him down.” The Lord hereby would make us more acknowledge His hand, and see that our help is always in Him.” This quote helps the reader understand that Mary believes that God is real for everything and if they were killed or saved it will be in the hands of the Lord. As people were being slaughter by the heading hunting Indians she sat there thinking the Lord is showing his power thus proving why they should keep praising him. “Come be hold the works of the Lord, what desolations he has made in the earth.” Of thirty-seven persons who were in this one house, none escaped either present death, or a bitter captivity save only one, who might say as he, “And I only am escaped alone to tell the News” (Job 1. 15)” She uses this scripture to help explain what God has done in her town; in her eyes this passage explains why her family and friend had to die and why she was spared. But if you look further into what she is saying, she starting to struggle with the idea of God letting everybody dies. She is trying to suppress the thought of there being something wrong with her faith.
“It is a solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their blood, some here, and some there, like a company of sheep torn by wolves…. Yet the Lord by His almighty power preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried captive.”
You see throughout Mary’s ordeal she was trying hard to keep her faith in God. Her struggle was unlike that of Benjamin’s, she was struggling on a spiritual level. Mary was struggling with the God that she believes in; the one that protects the world, the one that she has been praising for years and lived by his rules. But it is a hard task for someone to keep faith when she has lost everything, because of the demons but yet they have not been harm for their crimes. Throw on top the fact they were now dragging her back to what seemed like hell to her. “Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of the black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell.” But despite all her misfortunes Mary still found a way to keep believing in God. Matter of fact it was her faith in God that helped her fight to make it through her ordeal. “All was gone, my husband gone, my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone, and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.” Understand her struggle changes throughout the story from many different things, but they all involved faith and believing in God. Mary’s struggle went from being forced to watch her family die in front of her face and wondering why God did not help; to now struggling to find a way to keep on going now that she has no one else to live for. “It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail.” And just like Benjamin, Mary was able to keep on fighting. “My own wound also growing so stiff that I could scarce sit down or rise up; yet so if it must be that I must sit all this cold winter night upon the cold snowy ground…. Looking that every hour would be the last of its life.” Her being on the verge of death only made her belief in God that much stronger. “Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning.”
Conclusion
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