The Last of the Mohicans
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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's treatment of the Indian in general reflects the view of the Indian as the noble savage, the non-Christian savage who gains nobility from an association with nature. The Indian was present in the New World before the coming of the white man, and Cooper is ambivalent about the role of white society in this new land. On the one hand, the settlers are working to carve a life for themselves out of the wilderness and are
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natural world. The Indian tribes conduct war with one another just as white groups do, though at the time of this novel the different Indian tribes are waging not their own war but the war of the French against the British, with some tribes enlisted by the one side and some by the other. The French and the British are also making use for their own purposes of old animosities between certain of the tribes. Cooper explains much of the history in the opening chapters which detail the positions of the French and the British and which tribes each has on its side. In the Author's Preface, Cooper gives some of the geography of the different tribal groups as they were found when the first settlers arrived, and he particularly describes the tribe and sub-tribes constituting what he calls in his book the Mohicans. He also describes how the Iroquois were given that name by the French, probably as a corruption of one of their own terms. He notes the place of the Dutch in the early history of relations between the Indians and Europeans and will refer to this again in his novel as a particularly disgraceful episode:
From that moment may be dated the downfall of the greatest and most civilized of the Indian nations that existed within the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
United Robbed, Hawkeye Bumppo's, Natty Bumppo, Indian Romantic, Leatherstocking Tales, Preface Cooper, Indian World, Chingachgook Uncas, Indeed Mohicans, French British, noble savage, indian tribes, french british, french british tribes, white settlers, own civilization, world indian, british tribes, idea noble, idea noble savage, nature indian, natural world,
Approximate Word count = 1338
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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