Last of the Mohicans: A Dying Generation
Last of the Mohicans: A Dying Generation The Last of the Mohicans is one of five novels in the Leatherstocking Series, all of whichwere written by James Fenimore Cooper. Cooper is known to be "one of the nineteenth century'smost popular story tellers" because he "presented a simpler, idealized view of America'swestward migration" (Charles 392). Cooper was a pioneer of American literature. Writingduring the early to mid 1800's, Cooper is said to have "originated the American historical noveland the tale of frontier life" (Haney 70). The Last of the Mohicans is categorized as a historicalromance because it incorporates the elements of a romance into the context of a historical event. Throughout the novel Cooper explores such broad subjects as heredity and how it affects therelationships between the characters. Also discussed in the novel are the interracial relationshipsbetween Indians and whites and how these relationships have caused many of the characters toloose a place in their culture and even brought entire races, such as the Mohican tribe, toextinction. Binary Oppositions, such as pure blood versus mixed blood, noble Indian versussavage Indian, and forest versus civilization are also apparent throughout t
Reading TheLast of the Mohicans, we see several archetypal characters who symbolically parallel the growthof a nation, there by reflecting the time period in which the novel was written and the author'slife. He seems to represent the "best of both worlds. He is handsome,strong, and untouched in appearance. At the conclusion of the novel, the bereft Colonel Munro returns to his territory with Heywardand Alice, who are now engaged. Nearly the entire setting of the book takes place inthe forest and the forest is the main influence on the way the characters act (Ringe 153). Hawkeye is presented as the archetypal frontiersman and the archetypal American. The fort is small and insignificant in the grand scheme of thebook, while the forest plays an important role. Also, Hawkeye's ability to observeboth the Indian and the white culture and to use both of them in his life suggests an assimilation ofthe Native Americans and how they will later be forced to change their culture in order to adaptto the ways of the white man (Levernier 148). The reason Cooper gives for Cora's less feminine natureand greater freedom of action is her "mixed blood. Uncas, despite his pure and ideal character,is also doomed because of his relations with the whites. The main symbol ofwhite society is the "overly confident" outsider, Duncan Heyward (Stanley and Milne 136). Magua, the Indian guide, suggests a "short-cut"through the dense forest. Heyward constantly shows how incapable the "civilized" white men found themselves in thehostile environment of the forest. As the British leave the fortthey are massacred by the French allies, the Hurons. As more and morepeople moved west, Americans started to realize the future of America lies in the frontier.
Common topics in this essay:
Stanley Milne,
Cooper Cooper,
Indian-like Hawkeye,
Indians Hawkeye,
West Hawkeye,
United State's,
Native American,
English French,
British Indians,
Alice Munro,
stanley milne,
munro sisters,
mohican tribe,
fort william henry,
mixed blood,
native americans,
fort william,
chingachgook uncas,
throughout novel,
william henry,
duncan heyward,
civilization apparent throughout,
uncas son chingachgook,
native american culture,
apparent throughout novel,
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Acceptance Essays
