The Metaphors In James F. Cooper's The Last Of The Mohicans

369 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of American literature

The issues American writers were facing is evident in their writing. Starting with James F. Cooper in his story “The Pioneers”, chapter III, The Slaughter of the Pigeons. This is the story of white men going hunting for pigeons. However, they are hunting, not for food, but for mere sport. They kill hundreds of pigeons for no reason other than to have fun. The Indian with them reprimands them for wasting food and killing unnecessarily. This is a metaphor to the white men slaughter of the American Indian. Additionally, In “The Last of the Mohicans”, Cooper discusses stories of founding fathers. An Indian and a white man are discussing the stories of their founding fathers. The white man accuses the Indian of attacking the original inhabitants

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Daniel Richter's 'Facing East From Indian Country'

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    The other author to provide readers with a different historical perspective is Daniel Richter. Richter’s book Facing East from Indian Country allows readers to see the story of coming to America from the Native American perspective. An interesting point that Richter makes in his book is “Perhaps the strangest lesson of all was that in the new nation whites were the ones entitled to be called “Americans” Indians bizarrely became something else” . In early America when the first Europeans arrived to America they mistakenly referred to the natives as “Indians”. Even people today use the term “Indian” when referring to the Native

    Read More

  • A People's History Of The United States By Howard Zinn Book Analysis

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    Howard Zinn writes from the perspective of the minorities who whites mistreated while Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen write from the more traditionally historical perspective, that of the explorers and settlers. Zinn dives deep into the injustice of the way whites treated minorities while Schweikart and Allen opt to equally explain both points of view. Neither author writes a more correct book and people need both sides to completely understand the history of the United States. Zinn sets out to give a voice to those minorities who historians often glaze over. He attempts to shock the reader with the harsh reality of what transpired in the early days of America’s settlement. Zinn effectively backs up his information with credible primary and secondary sources about the time period, including writings from Columbus himself. The perspective he takes helps to illuminate the unfairness, and some may argue evil, of early American history. However, Zinn focuses primarily on the negative aspects of exploration and rarely mentions the good things Englishmen did, or the positives to their exploration. Schweikart and Allen attempt to balance the perspective of American history in their book. They, also, provide evidence from history to support their claims, and use facts to argue their point. They focus on

    Read More

  • Trapped by Two Cultures in Beets, Made You Mine, America, and Sangre 24

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 'Beets' by Tiffany Midge we meet a family of four, where the mother is an Indian and the father is white. The eldest daughter learns about the Plains Indians and their culture in school, but the "truth" she is told there is different from the one her father wants to prove. Such mixed messages are also what the speaker of Abraham Rodriguez Jr's 'The Boy Without a Flag' receives. He refuses to salute the American flag, because his father keeps on talking about all the bad things America has done to their home Puerto Rico, and thus believes that he has done what is expected of him, but the father gets angry with him for jeopardizing his education and future. The boy feels as if the father has collaborated with the enemy and does not understand how this could have happened. It took him until he had grown up to understand that the father only wanted what was best for him.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Thomas King's 'The Inconvenient Indian'

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Twain And Walt Whitman

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    America was a newly formed country at the dawn of the nineteenth century, and many social issues would be dealt with during this time period. Walt Whitman and Mark Twain were two authors during this era and both authors challenged the views and cultural upbringings that surrounded the nation at that time.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Edward Waterhouse

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    The stress of this caused their once coveted friendship to wither and morph into an ill hatred. The English began a campaign of the demonization of Native Americans. The image of Native Americans was described in Red, White, & Black as friendly traders who shared a mutually beneficial relationship with one another. Evidently, a very different image started to appear when land disputes arose. The new illustration the English painted was that Native American people were “comparable to beasts” and “wild and savage people, that live like heards of deare in a forrest”. It was sudden change of heart between the two societies that supports Waterhouse’s claims of the changing relationship of the English and Native

    Read More

  • The Fronteir Changes You: Analysis of The Last of the Mohicans

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Last of the Mohicans, the English travelers are not used to the savage American forests. They are used to having tea on their lawns and garden parties every week. They are used to having whatever they want, whenever they want it. This Victorian lifestyle of having more than you could ever want, is very different from the the lifestyle of the Americas where you don’t have anything but the clothes you are wearing and the gun in your hand, and if you don't find food that day, you won't eat dinner that night. Even during combat, which Heyward was not unused to, the officers still traveled in luxury and were expected to be treated well even if they were captured. In this book, Duncan Heyward goes from a posh military man, who is not used to the woods, to being so good at being stealthy that he could be disguised as an Indian. David Gamut, a young psalmodist who was originally very frightened to be in the woods, not only turns into a more hardened man, but actually becomes a help during the battle against the Delawares. The harsh American landscaped changed these men into seasoned foresters.

    Read More

  • Intuition Over Reason In The Last Of The Mohicans

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Last of the Mohicans is a romantic-themed film that took place during the French and Indian War in New York in Colonial America, and is defined by several happenings throughout it. There are many factors that makes this film a romantic-themed film. A few factors that depict this to be a romantic-themed film include: interest and respect for nature, the sense of a romantic hero because of bravery, and feelings of intuition over reason.

    Read More

  • The Last of the Mohicans and Fort

    2974 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Last of the Mohicans, released in 1993, is a story with much historical background as well as a very entertaining love story to catch the viewer’s eye. This movie is based on the historical event of the French and Indian War that went from 1754-1763. To give this story a more interesting twist, the director, Michael Mann, has added a love story between Hawkeye and Cora. Cora and her sister Alice are being escorted to their father, commander of Fort William Henry, when an attack by the Indians occurs. Daniel Day-Lewis, Hawkeye, comes to their rescue and helps bring them to their father. Hawkeye, along with his father (Chingachgook), and his brother (Uncas), try to help out her father but he will not take it into consideration. They are attacked and destroyed. All along this journey, Hawkeye and Cora fall in love. There have been a variety of responses to this film. Some critics very much enjoyed Mann’s work, while others had nothing good at all to say about it.

    Read More

  • American Horse by Louise Erdrich

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...

    Read More

  • Colonists and Indians Fight for Mutual Interests on the American Frontier

    2234 Words  | 5 Pages

    Since the settling of the English colonies in the early 17th century, pioneers have been destined to expand into the North American frontier and to domesticate it with their Christian faith and progressive nature. In their exploration of the frontier, however, the Puritan colonists often encountered Indians whose savagery challenged their discipline and morals. Just as the colonists expanded, Indians also saw their native lands of many years vanish. The situation naturally compelled the Puritans and the Indians to fight each other for their mutual interests. Thus, while most accounts of Western history focus on the heathen threat, both Indians and colonists experienced the harshness of the captivity myth and its evolution into other mythology that defined American history.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, And Edgar Allan Poe

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.

    Read More

  • The Last Of The Mohicans Essay

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Last of the Mohicans (1992) was about the French and Indian war. The Last of the Mohicans was directed by Michael Mann (IMDb). The three main stars of The Last Mohicans are Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, and Russell Means (IMDb). The Last of the Mohicans won an Oscar in 1993 for best sound. It also won another five wins and was nominated for ten more award (IMDb). The Last of the Mohicans is a historically accurate film, but it has some in inaccuracies.

    Read More

  • Southeastern Native American Literature

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.

    Read More

  • Racism Exposed in Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the late 1940s and early 1950s, many African Americans were subjected to racism in America. Blacks during this time had few opportunities and were constantly ridiculed by whites based on the color of their skin. Numerous blacks ridiculed themselves and their own race based on the color of their skin. Many writers have tried to portray this time period with the use of various literary devices such as theme. Ralph Ellison is one of those great writers that depicted America during the 1940s and 1950s perfectly.

    Read More

More about The Metaphors In James F. Cooper's The Last Of The Mohicans

Open Document