Rowlandson & Dances With Wolves

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A 3 page essay/research paper that compares Mary Rowlandson’s seventeenth century captivity narrative to the 1990 film Dances with Wolves. On February 20, 1676, a band of Narragansett Indians attacked the home of Mary Rowlandson as part of an uprising known as King Philip’s War (Wesley 42). Rowlandson and three of her children were taken captive. Rowlandson’s account of her captivity, which lasted eleven weeks, is extremely revealing as to the mindset of Puritan settlers during this period. This narrative is vastly different from the story portrayed in the 1990 film “Dances With Wolves” (directed by Kevin Costner for Orion Pictures). Nevertheless, there are similarities between the two works in that both Rowlandson and the film’s protagonist, John J. Dunbar, both undergo a transformation, that is, a change in their worldview, due to their experiences among Native Americans. Bibliography lists 3 sources.