Cooper and Cole: Comments on the Power of Nature in The Last of the Mohicans
In the history of American literature, James Fenimore Cooper played a substantial role in the development of American fiction and the American character (McWilliams 20-21). During his own time, Cooper influenced public opinion on many important political issues, especially those relating to the Native Americans, and especially the Indian Removal controversy of the 1830s (McWilliams 84). Of all of his writings, however, The Last of the Mohicans, 1826, second of the Leatherstocking series, had and continues to have the greatest impact.
TLOTM--never out of print, translated into almost every major language, the subject of four movies--is simply a novel that "everyone knows something about, even if one has not read it" (McWilliams 11-12). In short, TLOTM is an American myth, an American myth that is especially important in the way that it represents Native Americans and the American landscape.
It is this conception of the American landscape as an influential figure, a virtual character in Cooper's work, that interests me. "The trees, the greenery, and nature generally play as much a starring role in Mohicans as any of the main characters . . . depicted as wild, magnificent, uncontrollable" (Barker & Sabin 25). America--a land to conquer. A land in need of settling. In many ways, the Native Americans were seen as a part of that landscape, "more or less inconvenient aspects of geography," the good Indians facilitating white progress, the bad impeding it (Bercovitch 166). Nowhere is this conception of the Native American as a part of the American landscape as important to building the character of America as it is in Cooper's TLOTM. Here, Cooper ill...
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Additionally, In “The Last of the Mohicans”, Cooper discusses stories of founding fathers. An Indian and a white man are discussing the stories of their founding fathers. The white man accuses the Indian of attacking the original inhabitants
Turner fails to realize the extent to which Native Americans existed in the ‘Wilderness’ of the Americas before the frontier began to advance. Turner’s thesis relies on the idea that “easterners … in moving to the wild unsettled lands of the frontier, shed the trappings of civilization … and by reinfused themselves with a vigor, an independence, and a creativity that the source of American democracy and national character.” (Cronon) While this idea seems like a satisfying theory of why Americans are unique, it relies on the notion that the Frontier was “an area of free land,” which is not the case, undermining the the...
There are three parts in West’s book; the first part focuses on the sociological, ecological and economic relationships of the plains Indians, starting with the first establish culture of North America, the Clovis peoples. Going into extensive detail pertaining to early geology and ecology, West gives us a glimpse into what life on the early plains must have looked to early peoples. With vastly differing flora and fauna to what we know today, the early plains at the end of the first ice age, were a different place and lent itself to a diverse way of life. The Clovis peoples were accomplished hunters, focusing on the abundance of Pleistocene megafauna such as earlier, larger forms of bison. Though, little human remains were found, evidence of their s...
Because of westward expansion, America gained a significant amount of fertile land which contributed to the nation 's’ agrarian identity. The wilderness and landscape
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To begin with, the physical effects of the coal mine are explicitly comprehended by the macroscopic change in animals and bodies of water. “From the opening paragraph may be distilled the essence of the basic opposition of forces in the novel: natural and unnatural; light and darkness; the heights and the depths; harmony and imbalance” (Gilley 59). This sort of opposition further makes it clear how industrial capitalism is casting a shadow-like entity on the pastoral land of Cape Breton. MacLennan uses symbolism of organisms in the novel to establish concrete evidence for the environmental issues the coal mines have generated. For example, “the train look[s] like a column of black ants that had crawled up the stalk of a gigantic plant and died there” (MacLennan 9). This indicates the reality of the negative effect the mining industry has on Broughton. The pastoral scene that Mollie MacNeil and Alan MacNeil are watching is shattered by the colliery. Another comparison that MacLennan makes is of the tentacles of the octopus representing the galleries where the men work. These comparisons of the black ants and tentacles represent a dark outlook which is a...
The Last of the Mohicans, released in 1993, is a story with much historical background as well as a very entertaining love story to catch the viewer’s eye. This movie is based on the historical event of the French and Indian War that went from 1754-1763. To give this story a more interesting twist, the director, Michael Mann, has added a love story between Hawkeye and Cora. Cora and her sister Alice are being escorted to their father, commander of Fort William Henry, when an attack by the Indians occurs. Daniel Day-Lewis, Hawkeye, comes to their rescue and helps bring them to their father. Hawkeye, along with his father (Chingachgook), and his brother (Uncas), try to help out her father but he will not take it into consideration. They are attacked and destroyed. All along this journey, Hawkeye and Cora fall in love. There have been a variety of responses to this film. Some critics very much enjoyed Mann’s work, while others had nothing good at all to say about it.
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In Our savage neighbors written by Peter Silver, violence and terror characterized the relationship between the Indians and the Pennsylvanian colonists. The conspectus of Silver’s book resides on the notion that fear was the prime motivator that led to the rebirth
James Cooper is a popular American writer. By 1851, he became one of the most famous writers in the world. After achieving initial success, he moved to Europe for about seven years, where he continued to write impactful books. The Last of the Mohicans was written in 182...
There are many places that women can go for protection, such as shelters and many support groups. Educating woman about the cycles of domestic violence can decrease cases in the county. The support groups can also break the silence of a woman being abused and she will be able to speak out into a group of other victims. These groups make women feel that th...
Slaughter, Thomas P. Exploring Lewis And Clark Reflections on Men And Wilderness . New York: First Vintage Books Edition, 2003.
During the 1980s and 1900s, domestic violence was one of the most unreported crimes that involve females and males getting hurt and dying. Kicking, choking, killing, and saying brutal or despise words that could hurt the victims physically or emotionally are considered domestic violence. In fact, many victims are afraid to seek for help. According to “The Domestic Violence Resource Center (DVRC), women account for approximately 85 percent of all intimate partner violence, with women aged 20-24 at greater risk” (Batten, par.16). Most pregnant women are at risk as well. “But underlying approach is still one that assumes the perpetrators are men and the victims are woman” (Haugen, par. 1). Moreover, both males and females believe that domestic violence is a solution to their issues.