The Last of the Mohicans as an American Romance

The Last of the Mohicans as an American Romance

In the 1820s, the Romantic Movement emerged in the United States as an embodiment of the American spirit after a second war with Britain. Although the Romantic Movement, or the American Renaissance, began to emerge decades after its European counterpart, elements of Romanticism can be traced to the chronicles of the first explorers who wrote about the beauty and mystery of the New World. Thematically, Romanticism is characterized by its longing for the past, and its idealization of nature. Romanticism has a tradition deeply rooted in the experience of the early settlers of the New England colonies. Forged by the conflicts faced early in its history, the American brand of Romanticism reflected its unique environment. Since the late 1400s, elements of Romanticism permeated the written accounts of the early explorers and settlers who came to the Americas. Their writings described the natural beauty and mystery of the New World and introduced the Old World to a civilization and culture native to the Americas that would have a major impact on American Romanticism. Nineteenth century was the time of manifest destiny and American writers were particularly aware of nature, and the vanishing American frontier. Writers<,> such as James Fenimore Cooper<,> were beginning to comprehend that what drew the Europeans to the Americas were being lost. After struggling to survive and form a new nation and conflicts with the Native Americans, the Romantic Movement emerged as Americans began to establish their own identity and traditions. Cooper's historical fiction, "The Last of the Mohicans," emerges as a normative American romance by uniting America's innately...

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... was filled with conflict. The novel reflects Cooper's examination of those conflicts and the resulting loss for both the settlers and the Native Americans.

Works Cited

Christopher Columbus, "Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage," The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999.

James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, New York, NY: Penguin Books USA, Inc.; 1986.

Mary Rowlandson, "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson," The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999.

Thomas Studley, "The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isle," The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999.