The word captivity means "the state of being captive or enslaved." In the poem "Captivity" by Louise Erdrich, the narrator is depicted as being captured but also seems to see something in her supposed captors that she admires. Once she is rescued, she feels a disconnect from the people who she came from that causes her to view her old way of life as futile. This calls into question whether she was really a prisoner while she was living with indigenous people or whether her rescue back to settler ways of life actually represents the continuation of her old captivity, where she is required year after year to work the earth into submission rather than living alongside and within it.