The women also are unable to fulfill"normal" women's
roles:unable to protect their own children, unable to
dress neatly and cleanly or in the "proper'" garments,
unable to restrict their sexual activity to marriage to the
"appropriate" kind of man.They serve as a call for retaliation as well as for caution in
relating to these "dangerous" natives. Sometimes the narratives also challenge some of the
racial stereotypes. By depicting the captors as individuals,
often as people who also face troubles and challenges, the
captors are also made more human. . In either case,these Indian captive narratives serve a
directly political purpose,and can be seen as a kind of
political propaganda. .The captivity narratives also usually refer to
the religious contrast between the Christian
captive and the pagan Indians
.The captivity narratives served to define piety
and women's proper devotion to their
religion, and to give a religious message about
the value of faith in times of adversity. (Puritan)
Example:. Mary Rowlandson's captivity story,
for instance, was publishedin 1682 with a
subtitle that included her name as "Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson,a Minister's Wife in New
England."