...Throughout the history of North American captivity narratives, many of them varied from experience. However, there are many other aspects to creating a reliable narrative that displays accurate material. Cabeza de Vaca created the most reliable narrative out of the three that show Native American captivity practices among Indians because he was there the longest, participated in traditions, and remained unbiased. Unlike the other two narratives, Cabeza de Vaca remained around Indian territories for almost a decade by traveling around the gulf. He remained in the Texas Gulf Coast where he was able to get a better idea of how Indians lived and attained a certain respect for them that can only be achieved over time. He developed more experience...
Words: 364 - Pages: 2
...toward providing more information in which the Narrative published by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1542 leaves out. The story is about the journey of a castaway Spaniard who was in turn enslaved and befriended by the Native Americans. He gets enslaved for years by the indigenous Texas Tribe and eventually escapes with two other Spaniards and a native slave, Estebanico. Reséndez story engages powerful written/ spoken language in its ordinary form by including maps, footnotes, and a Further Reading section. This conquest portrays the inversion of power dynamics and dependence on survival upon firm...
Words: 878 - Pages: 4
...Donahue1 Bennett Donahue Mr. McElrath English III Honors 05 September 2014 A Trustworthy Puritan Although De Vaca, Equiano, and Smith were all brave and courageous men, William Bradford, the puritan for the historical narrative “Of Plymouth Plantation,” reveals himself to be most reliable and trustworthy. Bradford demonstrates that he is a strong believer in God, and a selfless leader among men by using emotional diction, biblical allusions, and his religiously based figurative language in order to show his tremendous leadership and his unbreakable loyalty to God and his men. Right off the bat, there is Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Yes, long name, but with that long name comes a long, perilous voyage that gambled his life at numerous occasions. De Vaca’s ship would have been the last place on earth that you would have wanted to be. De Vaca portrays himself as the leader of the ship, which he very well was, but he talks in a selfish way as if he was the strongest member on the ship. He writes, “When night fell, only the navigator and I remained able to tend to the barge,” he seems to recall moments only when he was the strong one to survive, or how he was able to brave through the hardships that he met(De Vaca 74). Now, De Vaca was a religious man. He praised god and mentioned that the reason why his barge was still afloat was due to the grace of god. Although he does mention god, he doesn't write like William Bradford, for example he refrains from saying that ...
Words: 1112 - Pages: 5
