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1.2 Main Content of The Novel
The Last of The Mohicans is always believed as the best of Cooper’s The Leather Stocking Tales. The story happened in the late of 1750s, which is the third year of the war that was generated by the contention of the colony between England and France. The place was set nearby George Lake and in the headstream of Hudson River. Author told the story with such a clue that Cora and Alice, the daughters of Munro, were hijacked during their visit on their father and how they escaped with the help of Hawk-eye, Uncas, etc.
In the late of 1750s, the French army is attacking Fort William Henry, a British outpost commanded by Colonel Munro. Munro’s daughters Alice and Cora set out from Fort Edward to visit their father, escorted through the dangerous forest by Major Duncan Heyward and guided by an Indian named Magua. Soon they are joined by David Gamut, a singing master and religious follower of Calvinism. Traveling cautiously, the group encounters the white scout Natty Bumppo, who goes by the name Hawkeye, and his two Indian companions, Chingachgook and Uncas, Chingachgook’s son. They are the only two survivors of Mohican tribe. Gradually they find that Magua actually betray them and guide them to a wrong direction. Then the Mohicans and Hawkeye attempt to capture this traitorous Huron but finally failed.
For escaping the Hurons pursuit, Hawkeye and the two Mohicans lead the group to a cave near a waterfall, but Huron allies of Magua attack them. Then Hawkeye and the Mohicans escape down the river, but Hurons capture Alice, Cora, Heyward and Gamut. And when Hawkeye tries to convert Magua to the English side, the Huron reveals that Magua actually wants to seek revenge on Munro for his past humiliation to him. Magua propose to free Alice if Cora will marry him. But Cora has romantic feelings for Uncas and angrily refuses Magua. Then Hawkeye and the Mohicans bust onto the scene, rescuing the captives and killing every Huron but Magua, who has escaped. After a harrowing journey impeded by Indian attacks, the group reaches Fort William Henry, the English stronghold. They sneak through the French army besieging the fort, and once inside, Cora and Alice reunite with their father. But later, under the attack of France and its Indian allies, the English army is forced to withdraw. At the same time, Munro told Heyward Cora’s mother was part of Negro. During their withdrawal, the Indian allies of the French indulge their bloodlust and prey the vulnerable retreating soldiers. In the chaos of slaughter, Magua manages to recapture Cora, Alice, and Gamut and escape with them to the forest.
Three days later, Heyward, Hawkeye, Munro, and the Mohicans discover Mugua’s trial and begin to pursue the villain. Using deception and a variety of disguises, the group manages to rescue Alice from the Hurons, at which point Heyward confess his interests in Alice. Then they rescue all their friends but Cora, because Magua has departed with Cora. A chase and a battle ensue. Magua and his Hurons suffer painful defeat and a rogue Huron kills Cora. Uncas begins to attack the Huron, who killed Cora, but Magua stabs him in his back and at last Magua was also shot by Hawkeye. At the end of this novel Cora and Uncas receive proper burials the next morning amid ritual chants performed by the Delaware. Chingachgook mourns the loss of his son, while Tamenund sorrowfully declares that he has lived to see the last warrior of the noble race of the Mohicans. This novel reflected Indians’ miserable life during the Westward Movement, the cruel wars between England and France and the real ugly aspect of the so-called European civilization.
2 Explicit View: Criticism on Racial Discrimination
Studying Cooper’s life and experience, we will find that Cooper himself has never seen and acquainted with Indians. But in his novel The Last of The Mohicans, we can easily feel his sympathy for Indians and his complaint with the white colonists as well as their barbarous behaviors. For instance Cooper once said that the first part of American land robbed by the white is the land of Mohicans. Therefore, the Mohicans has become the first tribe of Indians who are forced to leave their own land to find another. Faced with the push-forward of the white civilization which can also be called the cultural invasion, the Indians have to leave their homeland to escape the colonists’ persecution and during this progress, they become vanishing. Thousands of historical events can prove that such kind of miserable lives are not fake but true for Indians.