The Last of The Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper

The Last of The Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, revolves around

the drama of the clash between Indian and European cultures. This work

exploits the myth of the American frontier. The story of The Last of the

Mohicans takes place during the siege of Fort William Henry in 1757. The

Huron Indians capture a party of men and women outside the English fort

and take them captive. In one scene, a woman loses her child to an Indian

who is selfishly trying to trade the baby for a shawl. The ferocious Indian

holds the baby by its feet and teases the woman. Seeing that she is
desperate for her child, he strikes the baby's head into a rock and drops the

dead body at the woman's feet. On page 233, Cooper shows us this horrible

scene. The woman abandons all her possessions, trying to get her baby

back. Her possessions are all taken by other Indians, so now the baby has

no value for trading. The Indian casually kills it, and the mother is horrified.

There is no sense in resisting these warriors because the punishment will be

far worse than the conflict. However, they do try to get away from the

Hurons.

Cooper has Cora, a woman of African-American and Caucasian

ancestry, die because of her race. In fact, race is a central issue of this

novel. To the Indians, all the tribes are different races. To the Europeans,

however, all the Indians are the same race. And they are not of the white

race. The Indians are different from each other, and the white men are

different form each other. For example, Hawkeye is closer to nature than

other white men. In addition, he is more aware of danger than Duncan.

When the Indian goes over the waterfall, Hawkeye must restrain Duncan:

The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the

hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp of

the immovable scout (p. 83"). Duncan wants to show pity to the Indian in
2
the tree, but his European values do not apply in this life and death

situation:

"Give him, in pity, give him the contents of another rifle," cried
Duncan, turning away his eyes in horror from the spectacle of a
fellow creature in such awful jeopardy.

"Not a karnel!" exclaimed the obdurate Hawkeye; "his death is

certain, and we have no powder to spare, for Indian fights
sometimes last for days; tis their scalps or ours! and God, who
made us, has put into our natures the craving to keep the skin
on the head." (p. 92)

Hawkeye knows that he could lose his life if he wastes one bullet. In

fact, it is his last bullet. This is the morality of surviving in the New World,

and it is different from the morality of living in Europe. In fact, it can be said

that this is a higher morality, since it is closer to nature, and your life

depends on it. The woods are filled with danger, and Hawkeye knows it.

However, he gives in to his European values and shoots the Indian in the

tree. Duncan places too much value on the soft qualities of European

manners. That is why he chooses Alice. Uncas, on the other hand, chooses

Cora because she is strong and brave and useful. These are different

values.

Heyward is aware of the danger, but he is not as close to nature as

Hawkeye. Heyward is a good soldier. He is strong, and he fights well. He

knows the ways of the Indians. However, he does not know the woods.

Hawkeye knows the woods as well as any Indian. Heyward is lost, so he

needs Hawkeye and the Indians to guide him. Hawkeye is a frontiersman.

He is one of the new Americans, and he is not European, even though he is

a white man. He is not an Indian, either. He is one of the people who are

going to conquer North America and take it away from the Indians.

3
 Hawkeye differentiates himself from the Indians by reminding them

that he is a white man. For example, when they have no more powder for

their rifles, the Indians start boasting about how they will scoff at their

enemies when they die. But Hawkeye boasts like a white man. He says:

"Ay, ay," muttered the scout, who had listened to this

peculiar burst of the natives with deep attention; "they have
warmed their Indian feelings, and they'll soon provoke the
Maquas to give them a speedy end. As for me, who am of the
whole blood of the whites, it is befitting that I should die as
becomes my color, with no words of scoffing in my mouth, and
without bitterness at the heart!" (pp. 96 & 97)

Cooper's novel combines heroism and romance with powerful criticism

of the destruction of nature and tradition. It is the story of two sisters, Cora

and Alice Munro, daughters of the English commander, who are struggling to

be reunited with their father. They are helped in their journey by Hawk-eye,

a frontier scout and his companions Chingachgook and Uncas, the only two

survivors of the Mohican tribe. But their lives are endangered by Magua,

the savage Indian traitor who captures the sisters, wanting Cora to be his

squaw. By setting Indian against Indian and the brutal society of the white

man against the civilization of the Mohican, Cooper shaped the American

sense of itself as a nation.

This book uses a captivity narrative that has white victims captured by

Indians. Their personal story of raids and forced marches, the wilderness

and its native inhabitants, shows the efforts of Indians to assimilate their

Puritan captives into an alien culture. In this way, Cooper gives the reader

the opportunity to see the white man from an Indian's point of view. He

provides emotion for the Indians, especially Magua, the noble Huron warrior.

Magua is motivated by the desire to win in battle. In addition, he

4
wants to capture his greatest enemy. The book describes Magua on Page

113: "The conduct of this savage had formed a solitary exception to that of

all his fellows. While the others were busily occupied in seeking to gratify

their childish passion for finery, by plundering even the miserable effects of

the scout, or had been searching with such bloodthirsty vengeance in their

looks for their absent owner, Le Renard had stood at a little distance from

the prisoners, with a demeanor so quiet and satisfied, as to betray that he

had already effected the grand purpose of his treachery." And Magua
names his enemy on Page 114: "You hear," said Magua, with stubborn

indifference: "the red Hurons call for the life of The Long Rifle, or they will

have the blood of him that keep him hid!" Magua is satisfied when he has

the two daughters of Munro, Cora and Alice. Now he knows that he can use

the emotions of the father to win his battle.

Cooper's introduction to this novel says that the Delawares and the

Mohicans are the same people, or at least they are "tribes of the same

stock" (p. vii). The Maquas and the Hurons are the enemies of the Mohicans

and the Delawares. The white men do not understand the nature of their

rivalry, so they make many mistakes. For example, Heyward trusts a Huron

to guide him to the fort, and he is lost when he meets Hawkeye and his two

Mohican friends. Hawkeye is superior to Heyward because he knows that

they should not trust Magua. He is also superior to Munro and Montcalm

because he knows that ways of the Indians. The other white men think that

they can use the Indians without really knowing anything about their

culture. Instead, they are deceived. For example, Magua leads Heyward

and the daughters of Munro into a trap. Montcalm thinks that Magua is

working for him, but Magua does not care about the French army. He has

his own purposes.

5
 Heyward thinks that he can get Magua to let them go. He flatters him

and offers him medals. But he does not understand Magua's motivation.

The noble red man cannot be bought with flattery and bribes. Heyward

thinks that Magua wants revenge on his people because they kicked him out

of the tribe. However, he really wants revenge against the white man for

destroying his way of life. He explains it to Cora: "Le Renard struck the war-post

of the Mohawks, and went out against his own nation. The pale faces have driven the red-skins

from their hunting grounds, and now when they fight, a white man leads the way. The old chief at

Horican, your father, was the great captain of our war-party. He said to the Mohawks do this,

and do that, and he was minded. He made a law, that if an Indian swallowed the fire-water, and

came into the cloth wigwams of his warriors, it should not be forgotten. Magua foolishly opened

his mouth, and the hot liquor led him into the cabin of Munro" (pp. 131-132). Magua wants

justice for himself and his people. The white men gave him liquor, and it made him crazy. But the

white man would not forgive him for being crazy. Magua feels that Munro is his worst enemy

because he was supposed to be his friend.

The Americans are more successful than the other characters because

they can adapt to the new way of life. The Europeans and the Indians

cannot give up their old ways of life, so they cannot survive in the New

World. The Americans take the best parts of both ways of life, so they

succeed where the others fail.