The Last of the Mohicans
One of the
most famous early American novels, “The Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore
Cooper, helped paint a picture of the frontier that has lasted through the
centuries. Although a contemporary audience typically will associate the
American frontier with the prairie or the sunbaked southwest, there was a time
before where the frontier was in the woods of New England.
Fort
William Henry on the southern edge of Lake George in what is today the state of
New York, is the host of a British detachment under the command of Colonel Munro.
It is the year 1757 and the British and the French are at war. Rumor has it
that the French are approaching with what may be superior numbers. At this very
moment Munro’s daughters, Cora and Alice decide to pay their father a visit. Cora
and Alice are escorted by Major Heyward and a singing master David Gamut. Their
guide is an Indian named Magua.
On their
way to Fort William Henry, they encounter the band of Hawkeye, the scout and
the Mohicans Chingachgook and Uncas, father and son. They see Magua is up to
something and takes control of the party. True enough, before long they are
besieged by Magua and a band of Huron Indians, aligned with the French. Cora,
Alice, Heyward and Gamut fall into the hands of Magua, but are eventually freed
by the Hawkeye’s band just as the ritual torture was about to start.
Although
the band arrives safely at Fort William Henry, the peace is short lived. The
fort is attacked by the French and their Huron allies. Badly outnumbered and
outgunned Munro is forced to surrender. Although granted free passage, the Hurons
fall onto the train and massacres the women and the infirm. Cora and Alice are
again captured by Magua. He is leading them north to his own tribe with sinister
plans for the girls. Tracking him a few days behind, Hawkeye, Chingachgook,
Uncas, Heyward and Munro must catch up with Magua if they want to see the girls
alive.
I read “The
Last of the Mohicans” as a child and although I remember liking it, I quickly
realized I had forgotten everything else. Poor memory is sometimes a blessing
and it felt like a first read.
When “The
Last of the Mohicans” is good, it is really good. This is especially the case
in the chase scenes, whether the band is chasing Magua or being chased. There
is a fast pace to these scenes and a level of detail just enough to keep me
riveted and being able to visualize the chase. The chase across Lake George
stands out in particular. Cooper was a good action writer.
Cooper is
also good at writing on the wilderness itself. You get the feeling he has seen
these places and has some experience with outback life, if not life on the
Frontier itself. The skills of Hawkeye and the Mohicans are described in
convincing detail, and I can imagine generations going out into the forest to
emulate Chingachgook and Uncas with the book as their guide.
Cooper
obviously have a lot of respect for the Native Americans, their skills and
their culture and he deserves a lot of credit for that, yet he is also a
product of his own time where racial differences were a very real and insurmountable
barrier between people. The Indians are frequently called savages and not just
the Hurons and you can hear the regret that these are just Indians and thus cut
off from being something better. Hawkeye for all his praise and respect for his
Indian friends must mention in every second sentence that he is a man without a
cross, meaning pure white origin as if that somehow makes him a better person.
It is such
a pity that Cooper does not dare to bridge the gulf. There may be some
adherence here to the actual separation, also in the period of the narrative,
but I sense that Cooper wants to bridge it. There is a budding romance between
Uncas and Cora that would have been beautiful if it had been allowed to unfold,
but Cooped seems afraid to go that far. Cooper also laments the fate and plight
of the Indians, besieged and forced to make way for the whit people as they
are. He places word in the mouth of some of the Indians that demonstrates his understanding,
but he does not finish the step. Their fate is lamentable but it is just too
bad, he seems to think.
The real
problem with “The Last of the Mohicans” however is in the plot. As others
before me have pointed out, Cora and Alice’ visit to their father is hopelessly
unmotivated and ill-timed, but without it, there would be no story. The same with
the singing master Gamut, his presence is unexplained, and he has not function
but comic relief except he is not funny at all. While these may be the most glaring
plot holes, there are numerous decisions and actions throughout the story that
feel contrived or unmotivated but the only thing I can do as a reader is to
just to accept and flow with it.
If you take
into account that Cooper was not a modern writer, nor a contemporary writer of
the times he writes about, he did do an amazing job with “The Last of the
Mohicans” and the millions of readers worldwide are testament to that.
Wikipedia lists 11 different movie or serial versions of the story in a
addition to a number of German versions of the story! I am dying to see Bela
Lugosi as Chingachgook in Der Letzte Mohikaner from 1920!
Hugh!
