Fenimore Cooper's Argumentative Essay

Realism is often a hard to grasp concept in fiction, it only takes one stray detail to destroy a reader’s suspension of disbelief. From the points made in Mark Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses,” one can draw a working definition of literary realism. This definition hinges upon two points: plausibility and consistency. If an author’s work is plausible when it comes to the elements of the plot itself, spatial awareness, the behavior, and dialogue of the characters one part of the recipe is complete. Next, the author must stay consistent in these things or else the sense of reality will be lost and it will no longer fall under the umbrella of literary realism. Together these two concepts can create a sense of reality even within fantastical works.

In this, at least, is Cooper’s protagonist consistent, yet it is in his implausibility he is consistent. In spatial awareness, Twain finds The Deerslayer equally implausible and inconsistent. The passage that displays his disdain for the fellow author focuses upon the description of a certain stream. The description might sound at first correct enough, but Twain picks apart the anatomy of this fictional stream with a topographer’s accuracy. He says such things as it would “narrow to twenty [feet] as it meanders along for no given reason, and yet when a stream acts like that it ought to be required to explain itself” (1346). This leads to the next point of contention, the behavior of characters and specifically the implausibility of the Native Americans in The Deerslayer. Directly following the scathing dissection of the river itself, next Twain targets an attack upon a canal-boat by the natives. Their attempt to board the boat to attack is comical to say the least as one by one they miss their mark. This is not only a point