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.

Mary Rowlandson is the main protagonist and central character of Flight of the Sparrow. The fictional character is based on the historical figure of Mary Rowlandson (1637-1711) and her captivity narrative. However, there are some key distinctions between the fictionalized version of Mary and the historical figure. In the text, Mary struggles with her faith and belief in Puritan doctrine. Further, over the course of her captivity, Mary becomes admiring of and sympathetic to Nipmuc culture, even falling in love with a Nipmuc man named James Printer. She is portrayed as struggling to readjust to English society after her release. There is no historical evidence for this portrayal; it is an invention of the author that makes the character more relatable to a contemporary audience.

In the novel, Mary Rowlandson is a 35-year-old Puritan housewife living in the town of Lancaster in the English Massachusetts Bay Colony.