Thesis Statement
The Last of the Mohicans is a novel about national, cultural, social, gender, and racial equality. The races portrayed in the novel are real and existed in the time of the writer. As regards this, Cooper has quite artistically presented the prevailing culture of the Native Americans in the novel. The novel also depicts the adventurous traits of the natives.
Introduction
James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure series was very popular in Europe and in the United States because they didn’t only introduce the first American hero as well as the noble savage but also enclosed adventure and quests. The Last of the Mohicans is set on the American frontier during the French and Indian War. The daughters of Colonel Monro, Alice, and Cora, are going to visit him at Ft. William Henry, a fort being attacked by the French, with the help of a Huron tribe member Magua and Major Duncan Heyward. Magua betrays them and leads them into the battle with the Hurons; they survive only because Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye are passing by and rescue Cora, Alice, and Heyward. These rescues go on as the novel progresses, and finally, the Hurons capture Alice, Cora, and Heyward; only Cora survives. Magua kills Uncas and Colonel Monro but then later is killed by Chingachgook, the last of the Mohicans. Alice throws herself off the cliff because she saw that Uncas died defending her.
Several illogical and bizarre dramatic effects can be observed in this novel. To begin with, there’s the waterfall jump where Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye leap out and survive the fall, coming out unharmed. Also, there is the scene where a Huron Indian has Cora under his knife and hesitates a long time to kill her, and Hawkeye taking quite a long time finally gets there just in point to save her, which is a very bizarre coincidence. The castle in this story is the forest, where everything takes place, and the land is very valued. Magua’s religion is to obtain revenge on Colonel Monro and hate for his family, which is also his deformity; he will go everywhere to kill them. The British feel very superior to everyone, including the French; this makes it their religion. The armed knights are, of course, the Mohican Indians. The foreigners are the French and the British, who try to obtain the Mohican’s land and invade it. This novel reflects the values of the individual and common man, making it a romance (Divine, pp.34-35).
Discussion
Cooper introduced the concept of an adventure novel as this was the ingrained trait of the contemporary society, where certain individuals are chased, captured, and then escape to find that they’re being chased again. The Last of The Mohicans is an adventure novel with many of these examples. In the beginning, when Chingachgook and his sons rescue Cora, Alice, and Heyward, they have to run away from the Hurons, and when they are captured, they manage to escape only to be chased and caught again. Chingachgook and his sons are often entering hazardous fights for Cora, her sister, and Heyward, not knowing who they are. When Major Heyward sacrifices himself for Cora, he wants to show that he cares for her and that he has the ability to be a man. Also, there are the hairbreadths rescues that Cooper thoughtfully invented, where the victims are so close to being captured or killed that just a second before the rescuer or a specific situation appears. Examples of this are when Magua attacks them, the special protection at the burial grounds, rescue during the massacre, and the rescue from the village.
Cooper introduced the concept of a noble savage in his novels. In The Last of the Mohicans, the Indians are honest, keep their word, and help others, but are often tagged as savages because of their culture. This stereotype is not fair to them because they are very compassionate and even pray for animals when they hunt them. Also, after the massacre, they rescue an unknown British soldier in addition to Heyward, and they keep their word to Britain even if they betrayed them. Another concept is the heroic frontiersman, the wives, and families who live on the frontier and are still able to maintain a social life. There are also the couriers who face deaths and colonials who stay to help the British.
The American Frontier is a beautiful place filled with natures’ enchantments. There are the cliffs, rocks, waterfalls, caves, animals, trees, forests, and climate that make the frontier a barrier in which the characters had to accommodate and co-exist. Nature in the film is a physical frontier that the characters had to learn to cooperate with and find their way around. To be able to survive, apart from getting along, they had to respect and understand nature. The relationship that they have with nature determines their character, helping them establish their own fates (John, p.399-425).
Gender equality in this film has two sides, the British and the Indian. For example, at the beginning of the film, Heyward tells Cora that she cannot decide for herself to let her father decide whether she should marry him. This shows that her opinion and feelings are inferior to the decision of her father. Also, Heyward never offers one of the girls a gun, Cora steps out of the gender expectations and takes a gun from a dead soldier to defend herself. Hawkeye, on the other hand, sees nothing wrong with Cora’s actions and lets her make her own decisions, not seeing why she should be treated differently. The women in the village and settlement have authority; they can have their opinions and choose what they want.
The family of Colonel Monro is very unstable; he sees Cora in a different way because she is mixed. He hugs Alice and shows more affection to her because he prefers her to Cora. In contrast, Chingachgook loves Uncas as much as Hawkeye, who he adopted and is white but was brought up by Mohican ways. “Life is an obligation which friends often owe each other in the wilderness” (Cooper, p.63). This quote defines the nature of friendship in the forest, consisting of sharing daily lives to the point that one is willing to go to battle for any of his buddies. Hawkeye, who was not born into the Mohican tribe, would have had to prove his friendship with regular companionship. Every day that they are together is an assertion of their commitment to one another, and the British rarely value friendship with their family or one another. The novel demonstrates the changing structure of families, you can call your best friend your family, but he/she doesn’t necessarily have to be your own blood, mixing race and culture to survive. Hence, Cora and Hawkeye survive because one is hybrid and one is biracial.
On the frontier, everyone is treated the same, women, man, white, Indian, Colonist, old, and young, play games, and carry conversations living as a community. They are the opposite of the British, who believe themselves to be superior to everyone else, including the French. Alice refers to the Indians as red, making it obvious that to her their nothing but weird creatures. Heyward calls Hawkeye scout and only at the end calls him sir. They can’t tell that Magua is a bad Huron because to them, Indians are all the same. The British won’t accept the word of an Indian. These two races are different culturally in their traditions; the Indians keep their stories in an oral way, while the whites record them in writing. Many white people don’t read and are ignorant of their history, yet all of the Indians are familiar with theirs and respect it. The comparison of these two societies is a national equality issue.
“The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to journey on the same path.” (Cooper, p.90). This quote represents the racial controversies of the film and overcoming them, such as the whites’ inequality towards the Indians. Magua signifies the bad Indian, and Chingachgook the good one; on the other hand, Duncan and Alice represent the values of white society (Richard, pp.46-52). The characters of Hawkeye and Cora aim to transcend racial boundaries. The Mohican’s communion with nature allows them to go beyond race and see everyone for their own culture and individualism.
In the end, the differences of national culture, gender, race, and social equality are well symbolized by each character throughout the story. Magua is a good example of betrayal, hate, and vengeance, Duncan of the classical noble white, Cora of mixed races, Hawkeye of mixed cultures and heroism, and Chingachgook of the extinct race. The location where the story takes place, the American frontier, embodies barriers for characters to co-exist in and get along with each other. They have to go through their dissimilarities in order to live in a peaceful society. They also have to understand and respect nature and each other in order to survive. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper has been a very popular book not only in America but Europe. This is due to the new concepts and adventure that Cooper introduced in his novel. Not only did he include quest and excitement, but his stories are also based on real-life events or events that can happen. James Fennimore Cooper contributed a lot to American and World Wide literature.
There are several opposing forces involved in the plot of this story. Britain, France, and the American colonies, not to mention a variety of Native American groups, are all forces that play a major role in the rather complex and somewhat confusing plot of this tale. In the late 1750s, the French and Indian War has completely engaged the entire wild frontier in western New York. The French army is attacking Fort William Henry, a British outpost commanded by Colonel Munro. Munro’s daughters, Alice and Cora, leave from Fort Edward to visit their father, escorted through the dangerous forest by Major Duncan Heyward and guided by an Indian named Magua. Soon they are joined by David Gamut, a singing master and religious follower of Calvinism. Traveling cautiously, the group encounters the white scout Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) and his two Indian companions Chingachgook and Uncas, Chingachgook’s son, the only surviving members of the once great tribe of the Mohicans, hence the title of the novel. Hawkeye says that Magua, a Huron, has betrayed the group by leading them in the wrong direction.
The Mohicans then attempt to capture the traitorous Huron, but he escapes. Hawkeye and the Mohicans lead the group to safety in a cave near a waterfall, but Magua and his Huron accomplices attack early the next morning. Hawkeye and the Mohicans flee down the river, but Hurons capture Alice, Cora, Heyward, and Gamut. Magua celebrates the kidnapping. When Heyward tries to convert Magua to the English side, Magua reveals that he seeks revenge on Munro for past shame and proposes to free Alice if Cora marries him, but Cora has a crush on Uncas and angrily refuses. Unexpectedly Hawkeye and the Mohicans burst onto the scene, rescuing the captives and killing every Huron except Magua, who escapes. After a hard and dangerous journey delayed by Indian attacks, the group reaches Fort William Henry, the English stronghold (Martin, pp. 26-29). They sneak through the French army besieging the fort, and, once inside, Cora and Alice are reunited with their father.
The three main tribes concerned in this novel include the Mohicans, the Hurons, and Delaware. The Iroquois are also mentioned, but only in passing; they are not relevant to the plot of the novel at all. The Hurons represent the villains in the novel. The Mohicans are real people who were, in fact, killed out by European influences, the most notable of which is a disease. Many diseases such as smallpox and measles came to America with the British. The native peoples had no immunity to these diseases, and the death toll estimates range from tens of thousands to millions. Conflicts with settlers were often caused many fatalities for both sides. As Mohicans, also often called Mahicans, lost territory and were slowly forced from their hunting and gathering areas that had belonged to them for generations, starvation took a great toll on the population as well. The Mohican and Mahican people are, in fact, the same tribe called by both of these names. The name of Mahican is the original name of this tribe and has changed slightly through time, possibly influenced by James Fenimore Cooper’s novel. (Brown, 89-93) Their gradual extinction is real, and the traits of these people were accurately portrayed by Cooper in this novel.
The Delawares do not play a vital role in the novel until their first relevant mention in chapter XXII. Here is when Gamut reappears after his and the sister’s capture during the Fort William Henry Massacre. In historical truth, the Delawares called themselves Lenap, or Leni-lenap; which translates to mean to real men. The English knew them as Delawares, from the name of the river; the French called them Loups (wolves). The Lenap; consisted of three tribes-Munsee, Unami, and Unalaqtgo, which were symbolized respectively under the totems of the Wolf, Turtle, and Turkey. Of these, the Munsee held Upper Delaware and were considered the defenders of the frontier against the Iroquois. Their dialect differed considerably from that of the other two. The Unami held the middle course of the river while the third tribe occupied the lower country. The novel does reflect these traits relevant to Delaware.
The Hurons are the villains of the novel. Magua was a leader amongst his people until he was expelled from the tribe. The reason for his expulsion is never clearly defined in the story. This fact becomes irrelevant as the storyline progresses. Magua’s strong oral skills and slyness give him a unique image and the ability to persuade people to follow him. Magua is often portrayed as a manipulative individual. Historically speaking, the Hurons were a woodland people; they traded furs with the French and were bitter enemies with the Iroquois. They are known today as the Wyandot and are portrayed in the correct context and arguably in personality as well.
Conclusion
To conclude, the novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper is an accurate portrayal of the events and peoples of the time period. The plot has been historically analyzed as well as key events. The Native American cultures of the novel have been presented in their historical setting that has been proven in line with their portrayal in the text of the novel.
Cooper knew that the Indian way of life was threatened; specific tribes faced extinction because European immigration had required changes incompatible with their survival. Nonetheless, if the frontier had not been made the battlefield of European powers and if the occupying peoples had not remained stubbornly ignorant of the Indians they were displacing, some less painful Indian history might have unfolded. Cooper had pointed out the blameworthy in the first paragraph of The Last of the Mohicans, and his chapters on the siege, fall, and bloody aftermath of William Henry reflect his thesis that the whites were more at fault than their instruments Indians, for the suffering. He did not choose to write his fictionalized account of this chapter in American history from a single-mindedly white perspective.
Cooper chose to turn the second half of his novel to detailing of Indian traditions and customs, not simply their skills in the wilderness or their arts of war, but their love of oratory, their rites of the council, rules of hospitality, the deference to rank, age, experience, the play of their children, the design of their lodges, their use of paint and decoration, their purpose in plucking their body hair, their totems, their spiritual beliefs, their oral history. Indeed, the reader is encouraged to shift his focus from Magua and Uncas to see the peoples who gave them life and identity. Heyward is the naive instrument of Cooper’s irony in these chapters treating the night in the Huron camp. When the reader brings his knowledge of the juggler to the novel, Heyward’s dilemma is understood in ways that only Cooper’s Hawk-eye seems to comprehend. Heyward’s presumption that he can play the role is seen as overreaching vanity, the same chivalric foolishness that Cooper deflates throughout the novel. The novel may be truly termed as the picture gallery of the contemporary era or a mirror to the society to which it pertains.
Works Cited
Brown, Ralph Adams. Exploring with American Heroes. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1973. pp.89-93
Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans, ed. John McWilliams (Oxford University Press, 1994). 63, 90
Demus, W. Allen, “By All the Truth of Signs: James Feni-more Cooper’s ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’” Studies in American Fiction, 1981, pp. 159-79.
Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, and R. Hal Williams. America; The People and the Dream. Atlanta: Scott Foresman A division of Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 34-35
John McWilliams, “The Historical Contexts of The Last of the Mohicans,” in James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, ed. John McWilliams (Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 399-425.
Martin Barker, “First and Last Mohicans,” Sight and Sound, 1993, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 26-29.
Richard Grenier, “America’s Moral Hermaphrodite,” Quadrant, May 1993, no. 296, vol. XXXVII, no. 5, pp. 46-52.
Terence Martin, “From Atrocity to Requiem: History in The Last of the Mohicans,” pp. 47-65 and Robert Lawson-Peebles, “The Lesson of the Massacre at Fort William Henry,” pp. 115-38 in New Essays on the Last of the Mohicans, ed. H. Daniel Peck (Cambridge University Press, 1992).