James Fenimore Cooper's The Last Of The Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans is an American classic, was written by James Fenimore Cooper and published in 1826. The Last of the Mohicans was written in the third person omniscient point of view, is a narrative and is in the Historical fiction genre. Cooper’s novel follows the story of the two daughters of a British general (Cora and Alice), the generals trusty major (Heyward), a tag along singer (Gamut), Their Huron guide turned renegade (Magua), and the last two noble Indians of their race (Uncas and Chingachgook). Cooper’s writing career was, oddly enough, started on a dare. One day he threw a novel down in disgust, saying he could write better. His wife Susan then challenged him saying if he could write better he should
go ahead and do it. So that’s how his story began.
The setting of this story takes place at the British inhabited Fort Edward in the Northeastern colonies during the French and Indian War. Magua, a Huron scout still loyal to the British, intercepts information that Montcalm, the French general, is heading to attack Fort William Henry with his Indian allies. The British then decided to send reinforcements to Munro at Fort William Henry. Cora and Alice were tired of not being with their father so they set out on a journey with Major Heyward and the scout Magua as their guide. Soon after they set out, David Gamut makes a grand entrance riding his wild colt. Gamut is a very religious person and soon lets everyone know with his singing which later causes problems.
Later in chapter 5 the group meets Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas. Hawkeye tells Heyward that Magua looks suspicious. Heyward tells the scout of Maguas descent (Huron) that he is loyal. The scout says that it doesn’t matter what tribe he is in now; the blood of a Huron is evil (another stereotype). But, when the Major tries to confront Magua, he runs. Hawkeye shoots and wounds him but he escapes.
They go to the Mohicans hideout and have to kill Gamut’s colt because it makes too much noise. Uncas seems attracted to Cora and vice versa. In the morning the scream of a horse causes Gamut to stand up and say, “Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter sounds like these!” He is then shot and wounded. A battle then starts between the Mohicans and Hurons. After this, the Mohicans and Hawkeye escape through the river. The remaining group is later captured from the cave by Magua. Magua tells Cora that if she will be his wife he will let her sister go. Alice tells Cora no. Just before Cora’s execution the Mohicans kill the Indians with only Magua and Lt. Subtil escaping. After this, the group heads to Fort William Henry. Hawkeye is captured. Heyward tells Munro of his desire to marry Alice. Munro reveals Cora and Alice are only half sisters. Cora’s mother was related to slaves. Montcalm gets Munro to surrender. As they are marching away and leaving the fort, Hurons attack the surrendered and slaughter them. The sisters and David are again captured by Magua.
The Mohicans, Heyward, Hawkeye, and Munro set out to find the sisters. After a while they find Gamut and he says that Alice is in the camp of the Hurons while Cora is in the camp of the Delaware. Heyward goes into the Huron camp disguised as a Frenchman to get Alice. After this Uncas is captured and taken to the same camp. Uncas’ execution is set for the next morning by Magua. Heyward succeeds in rescuing Alice but only after being saved from Magua by the scout. After Alice is rescued, Hawkeye rescues Uncas with David’s help.
The Major, Scout, and Uncas are then captured purposely by the Delaware who hold Cora captive. Uncas is about to be killed when under his shirt a tattoo of a tortoise is revealed. The tortoise is the symbol of the Delaware tribe and the Mohicans. This makes Uncas their chief. A battle takes place with the Delaware victorious over the Huron. Gamut even joined the fight with his slingshot. However, towards the end of the battle Magua has Cora in front of him with a knife to her throat. Uncas tries to save her but Magua stabs him in the back. Another Indian then killed Cora. After this Magua jumps across a cliff only to eventually fall and die after being shot by Hawkeye. A large funeral is then held for Uncas and Cora with all of the characters going their separate ways.
Hawkeye is the protagonist of this novel while Magua is the antagonist. I believe this book expresses a lot of things about race. As this book was written in the 1800’s, there are terms that would be considered racist in this time period. Cooper calls the Indians savages and has many stereotypes. Hawkeye, a white man lives with indians. While Cora, who is half-black lives with whites. Uncas also loves Cora while they are different races. Religion is also represented and symbolized in this book by David Gamut. Gamut is a very kind but kind of an over the top character. He is shown as a klutz and not very smart when it comes to anything but music and the bible. This could symbolize opposition of religion by Cooper but that could be a misinterpretation. Hawkeye doesn’t oppose religion but has nothing to do with it. It seems as if he regrets not being religious at times. The most important part of this book is the dying or imminent end of one of the few “good” races of indians. Cooper is very vague and confusing in describing Indian tribes. He is not very specific and does not explain things well at all. I believe he was intentionally vague and unspecific to establish separation or keep separation between whites and Native Americans in that time period; because the book was written in 1829 when Indians were most definitely not accepted.
The most powerful character, in my opinion, is Uncas.
Uncas is shown as very elegant and noble in this novel. He has great physical and mental attributes. Uncas never shows fear even when he was almost killed numerous times. He, unlike his father Chingachgook, does not base his prowess on scalps and is instead noble and kind when need be. He shows this after helping to rescue the girls from the Hurons. Cooper says, “But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora.” I believe the character that Cooper helps us understand the best is Cora. We are alerted of her background, family, and personality more so than any other character. She is kind, independent and does not show that she is afraid of death. She cares about her sister Alice more than she cares about herself. Cora is also very tough and unlike the majority of women in her time period. She doesn’t complain about anything. This makes her very special because she is very beautiful and doesn’t demand things from people. When Cooper wrote this book I believe he was just trying to write a thrilling story and put onto paper the viewpoints of the majority of settlers regarding race and religion. He establish that inter-racial relationships were not the norm or considered
right.
I did not enjoy this book as much as I had expected too. It is awkwardly written and has a lot of irrelevant rants and babbling. Cooper seems like a good/decent writer to me in this book but it fell short of my expectations. In finishing this book I felt very little satisfaction. It did not tell what became of the characters but ended immediately following Uncas and Cora’s funeral. I believe it was worth reading because otherwise I would be left wondering if it was a good book or not. The reason I expressed interest in this book. But, in reading it I found that it is very different from the movie that was made in 1992. I would most likely not recommend this book to a friend because it is not interesting and failed to keep me attentive. I believe that Cooper could have made this book much shorter by getting rid of all of the irrelevant dialogue and mainly sticking with the story and action; that, in my opinion would have made this book a lot more interesting and enjoyable.