Flight Of The Sparrow: A Novel of Early America

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, violence, enslavement, sexual assault, child death, and suicide. Additionally, the source material uses offensive terms for Indigenous Americans throughout, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

“Later, Mary will trace the first signs of the Lord’s displeasure back to a hot July morning in 1672 when she pauses on her way to the barn to watch the sun rise burnt orange over the meetinghouse.”

The Puritans believed that God’s plans could be divined from signs and portents. In this quote, Mary Rowlandson alludes to this belief by suggesting that the hot weather is a sign that God is angry with the Puritans and is signaling the Lord’s intention to punish them for their wickedness.

“Yet she stands stock-still on the wide granite door stoop, holding a birdcage, miraculously unscathed. All her senses have exploded wide open. Terror has rendered the world fiercely, acutely luminous, as if even the smallest thing in it is vibrating with meaning.”

This quote refers to the moment when Mary is captured by the Indigenous Americans who raid Lancaster. It is symbolic that she is carrying the birdcage holding the sparrow, a symbol of her feelings about freedom. She is on the threshold of going from one form of bondage to another, a terrifying moment.

“Did she not swear she would rather die than fall captive to Indians? Yet now that the hour has come upon her, where is her courage to resist these heathens? Why can she not gather the strength to flee?”

In the historical memoir that the novel Flight of the Sparrow is based upon, Mary Rowlandson notes that prior to her capture she stated would have wanted to be killed rather than held captive by Indigenous Americans. The fictional Mary here echoes that sentiment and berates herself for not holding fast to her word and dying a martyr.