The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper was part of a series of novels known collectively as "The Leatherstocking Tales," of which there are five, all produced between 1823 and 1841. The Last of the Mohicans was the second in the series in the order written, though the chronological order of the novels would be different, with the first story chronologically being the last of the five novels produced. Cooper was the first major American novelist, and his books are infused with an understanding of the colonial period, though Cooper himself was born not only after that era but after the founding of the country in 1776. In this and other novels in the series, Cooper presents images of the American Indian and relates them to the wilderness in which they live and to the civilization being forced upon them by the white settlers. Several different Indian tribes are included in the story of The Last of the Mohicans, with the main characters of Chingachgook and Uncas, his son, standing as the ideal of a noble tribe now reduced to just these two.

Cooper excelled as a novelist, social critic, and historian, and his sense of history serves him well in The Last of the Mohicans. He had a relatively short literary career spanning 31 years, and during that time he published 33 substantial works of fiction, three books of explicit social and political commentary, five travel books, a huge history of the United States navy, a book of naval biographies, and much misc

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guides the Alice and some officers in the direction of the Delaware village to free Cora, who has been captured. All are captured for a time, but they escape. In the fighting that comes later, Cora, Uncas, and Magua are all killed. Uncas was to be the last of the Mohican tribe, but with his dad, Chingachgook is left alone. PART III 1. "'My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever.'" (25). --The pride of Chingachgook is evident in this statement, which also links him to a long line of warriors and chiefs and suggests the extent of Native American civilization before the coming of the European. 2. "'When a man consorts much with a people,' continued Hawkeye, 'if they are honest and he no knave, love will grow up atwixt them.'" (205) --Both Hawkeye and his Indian friends are examples of the noble savage, and here the nobility of friendship is celebrated. 3. "'Nothing but vast wisdom and onlimited power should dare to sweep off men in multitudes,' he added; 'for it is only the one that can know the necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that can replace the creatures of the Lord?'" (190). --The statement ref

Category: Literature - T