Analysis Of James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers

One of the many commonalities that James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers have with the 1962 film How the West Was Won is its emphasis on the frontier settlement. While both are descriptive of the frontier settlement, the plot of How the West Was Won is focused more on the settlers’ lifestyles than The Pioneers. An example of this is the fourth segment of the film titled The Railroad, whose overall theme focuses on the effects the westward expansion has on the environment. In this case, the Arapaho Indians oppose the presence of new settlers via the railroad because of their desire to hunt the buffalo herd. This theme becomes apparent in the mise en scene of the aftermath of the Arapahos’ retaliation attack on the nearby town. The main shot has

Despite this, one of the examples of the theme shining through is the hunting of hunting of pigeons in Chapter XXII. Much like the Arapahos’ concerns for their buffalo herd, Nathaniel “Natty” Bumppo expressed repulsion to the mass killing of pigeons and said, “I known the pigeons to fly for forty long years, and, till you made your clearings, there was nobody to skear and hurt them” (Fenimore Cooper, 251). Judge Temple’s response to the hunting is an example of self-awareness from a settler, stating “We have happily frightened the birds from this side of the valley and the carnage must of necessity end, for the present” (255). Yet in How the West Was Won, Mike King reacts to the Arapahos’ attack by simply shrugging it off as a minor setback. At the same time, he turned a blind eye on the town’s devastation by claiming that it’s just a way of life while Zeb repeatedly asked him if he could live with it. While his dialogue does its job of indicating Mike’s disregard for life, the preceding jump cut of a child crying over his dead mother’s body does its job of emphasizing this notion. At this point, the confrontation between Zeb and Mike ends with them splitting apart into their shots. The contrast between these jump cuts emphasizes the division—such as the background (scenic versus ruined land), the mode of transportation (horse versus train), and the score