The Last Of The Mohicans Nature Essay

The movie The Last of the Mohicans directed by Michael Mann shows the Romantic Period’s conception of Nature. The film is heavily based upon Nature and expresses Nature as a central character in the film. The American Romantic Period’s definition of nature is sublime, using inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore, finding beauty and truth in exotic locates, and reflecting on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development (Elements of Literature). The Mohicans and the Europeans take different prospective in their view of nature. The Europeans do not see the beauty in Nature and has a corrupt civilization, whereas the Mohicans live as frontiersmen and admires Nature. This movie shows how The Mohicans accolades Nature as a supernatural

character over the corrupt European civilization.
Nature is seen as a supernatural character that is God like. God is the creature of all and is the most crucial part in the living society. Nature plays the same role as God does. Humankind should be thankful for the existence of Nature. People are engulfed in the presents of a verdant place that is serine. Nature came before manlike and it is superior with more crucial roles than mankind has. It should be feared to an extent and should not be messed with. Like God can destroy, Nature can lead to destruction when it is satisfied. It should be honored with grace and not destroyed by effrontery. The Mohican live and breathe in Nature, and live their life with Nature to their fullest. The Mohicans love the Nature that they leave in and live as frontiersman to enjoy Nature. After Natty killed a deer in the opening scene of the movie, Chingachgook says, “We're sorry to kill you, Brother. Forgive us. I do honor to your courage and speed, your strength…” (Mann). To the Mohican and other related tribes, it is the culture for a prayer to be made to the deer since they killed it and took a piece of life from nature. A deer is just an animal, but it is a creation of nature, which was created by God. They say a prayer every time they take a soul from nature away. Duncan, Alice, Cora, Chingachgook, Uncus, and Natty hide for the night while going to Fort William Henry in the burial ground to use the lingering spirits to help them. There were “stilt platforms of skeletons and torn strips of buckskin silhouetted against the night sky in the distance” (Man) around them in this burial place. Because they were staying at a burial, the Hurons turned back. The Hurons may be unethical in their actions, but they do have respect for the deaths in a sanctified ground. A place with many protracted souls is holy and should not be disturbed by men, especially by a war. The death should be left in peace after leaving the world to enter the new life of nature.
Nature is not a complete escape from reality, but it does serve as a protective character that helps the Mohicans use nature to their advantage many times throughout the movie.

Chingachgook, Uncus, and Natty find a footprint near the stream on a rock mose to give them a clue that someone was near. It leads them to their first encounterment to Cora, Alice, and Duncan. Without the hint that Nature gave them, the British would be in greater trouble than they already were in. Cora, Alice, and Duncan would not have survived as long as they did with the Mohicans by their side. Later when they were chased by the Hurons, they escaped to a nearby cave in a waterfall. They hide in there for the meantime, although that did not last very long as an escape. Natty jumps off the cliff into the waterfall, knowing that it was his best chance of surviving and to save Cora. He uses the flow of Nature to help in survive. In the closing scene Alice is captured by Magua. She does not want to be in the hands of the Hurons and thinks she will be in better hands with Nature than to be forced to be someone she is not. Nature cannot completely be an escape from reality, but it is a better place than somewhere else because it keeps a person feel at ease. Seeing the courage of Uncus trying save her, she looks at Magua with wide eyes filled with fear, looks down the cliff, and jumps off courageously into the freedom of serene with

Unus.
Nature can help people like it did for the Mohicans and Alice, but it can also be destructive depending on a person’s action toward Nature. The Europeans do not see how high and might Nature is and destroys the children of Nature. The Europeans like the Mohicans were taught to make fire to survive life in the wildlife, but they were not taught to not to play with fire. Messing with Nature, is messing with fire that should not be played with. The British uses canons, eradicate the lands, arrogantly wear red coats, the color that stands out the most and that can be seen from distances away, and stands in their usual formation of lines. They try to go against the natural surroundings and it turns into their disadvantage. They are soon ambushed by the Hurons. In the attack, the Hurons are not wearing clothing that stand out like the British and hide in the forest as a shield and as a camouflage. British may seem superior to other people and tribes, but they cannot be superior to Nature. Nature will defeat them if they try to defeat Nature.
Natty and Chingachgook use inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore of Nature to connect with the spirts of the deads. The Camerons’ village has been destroyed and burned by a war party when Natty, Uncas, Chingachgook, Cora, Alice, and Duncan arrive. All the bodies lay died and Cora greatly insisted on a proper Christian burial for the Camerons. Natty denied the idea despite his close relationship with the Camerons because it would leave traces of them. Natty’s birth nationality say that “at the birth of the sun and of his brother, the moon, their mother died… so the sun gave to the earth her body, from which was to spring all life. And he drew forth from her breast the stars. The stars he threw into the night sky to remind him of her soul [the sky]” (Mann). Although Natty was unable to give the Camerons a proper burial, the Camerons will always been with him in the stars. Natty represents the stars as the Camerons’ monuments, and also his folks’ monuments. Natty has believed this legend since the age of eight and still lives through this legend that he was told as a young boy to help him survive and to help sooth himself. If he did not have this legend, he would live in guilt and melancholy of not burying his close friends who had suffered from a war party attack. Chingachgook in the end of the movie makes a prayer to the spirits looking at the sky. He asks the Gods for patients till he, the last Mohican, also joins the rest of them. Like Natty gazes at the stars in remembrance of his people, Chingachgook gazes at the sky and sun in remembrance of the Mohicans.
The movie shows deep reverent to nature, and peace and solitude are brought upon the people by nature. Nature plays a gargantuan role in the development of American writing. It is sublime and American nature is different than European nature. Americans have found advantages in their American Nature while Europeans have found disadvantages in their Nature. Nature can be both beautiful but can also be destructive to someone’s life. It has more power than many people think, so it should be glorified and not played against. Nature is a whole different character that is vital in determining the outcome of a person’s life.