Comparing Cooper and Sedgewick

Cora Munro is the heroine in The Last of the Mohicans. Cora is racially mixed and this became an issue in the novel because of interracial relationships. In Hope Leslie, Hope also is faced with a relationship that is not acceptable. She is in love with her adopted brother, Everell. This departs from the Puritan beliefs. Winthrop opposes this at the end of the novel.

At the beginning of the novel The Last of the Mohicans, Major Heyward fell in love with Cora, but upon discovering her heritage, he quickly began to fall in love with Alice. Colonel Munro told Duncan the story of Cora:

"I had seen many regions, and had shed much blood in

many different lands,... There it was my lot to form a

connection with one who in time became my wife, and

the mother of Cora. She was the daughter of a gentle-

man of those isles, by a lady whose misfortune it was,

if you will,...Major Heyward, you are yourself born at

the south, where these unfortunate beings are

considered of a race inferior to your own." (164)

This is not the only time that interracial love is portrayed. Another incidence of this is when Cora has feelings for an Indian, Uncas. They both die at the end of the book and I feel that this is how Cooper shows his distaste for the interracial relationship.

Cora is a strong, reliable character and is more interesting than her sister. Cora is cunning and she refuses to admit defeat. She did not want to be looked at as a savage. Cooper makes Cora out to be clever at times too. She devises a plan that puts her at risk. She decides to risk rape or death and insists on turning herself over to the Indians.

Sedgwick's Hope Leslie, the central theme is the importance of strict adherence to the religious tenets of the Puritan religion with the significance of the human conscience and following one's own heart. Hope is a Puritan and is blessed with money. Hope is independent and liberated, similarities of Cora's character. Hope is able to follow her conscience and trust in her heart unlike most other Puritans. An example of this is shown in the letter that Hope writes to Everell:

"Aunt Grafton remonstrated, and expressed her netural