The Last of the Mohicans
I. About the Novel
1757 and North America Hudson basin. A British army and the
French troops were fighting concerning a territory. A native tribe
was fighting with the United Kingdom side and the French side by
the respective circumstances. There was Huron group on the French
side and there was Mohican group on the United Kingdom side. T
wo person daughter of a Munro general of a British army was traveling,
but they match a dangerous eye soon. Caucasian's hawkeye tries to
help them with two people, officer Heyward of the British who
accompany travel and Mohican family who came on the way and the friend.
Works Cited （参考文献）
II. Versions of the Novel in the Mass Media
Director Michael Mann based this lushly romantic version of t
he James Fenimore Cooper novel more on his memory of the
1936 film version (starring Randolph Scott) than on Cooper's
novel (in fact, Philip Dunne's 1936 screenplay is cited as source
material for this film). Set in the 1750s during the French and
Indian War, the story concerns Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), the
European-born adopted son of Mohican scout Chingachgook
(Russell Means). Hawkeye and his party, which also includes the
Mohican Uncas (Eric Schweig), joins up with a group of Britons
who have recently arrived in the Colonies. The group consists of
Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May)
, who are rescued from a Huron war party by Hawkeye. Hawkeye's
band accompanies them to the British Fort William Henry, which i
s being besieged by a French and Huron force. The fort falls to
the French, and Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) surrenders to
French General Montcalm (Patrice Chéreau). The terms of the
surrender are that the British merely abandon the fort and return
to their homes. However, the French's bloodthirsty ally, the Huron w
arrior Magua (Wes Studi), has made no such agreement, and,
as the British retreat from the fort, he plans to massacre them
in a terrible Huron attack.
Works Cited （参考文献）
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1040678-last_of_the_mohicans/
III. About the Author
James Fenimore Cooper
His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days
created a unique form of American literature. He lived most of his life in
Cooper stown New York, which was founded by his father William on
property that he owned. Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcocal
Church and, in his later years, contributed generously to it. He attended
Yare University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian S
ociety,but was expelled for misbehavior.
Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U.S. Navy as
Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U.S. Navy as
a Midshipman which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings.
The novel that launched his career was The Spy. a tale about counterespionage
set during the Revolutionary War and published in 1821.He also wrote numerous
sea stories, and his best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period
known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians, Cooper's works on the
early U.S. Navy have been well received, but they were sometimes criticized by his
contemporaries. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of
the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece
IV. My Reaction
A. Reaction Point - protagonist(メインキャラクター)
- Hawkeye-The novel’s frontier hero, he is a woodsman, hunter, and scout. Hawkeye is the hero’s adopted name; his real name is Natty Bumppo. A famous marksman, Hawkeye carries a rifle named Killdeer and has earned the frontier nickname La Longue Carabine, or The Long Rifle. Hawkeye moves more comfortably in the forest than in civilization. His closest bonds are with Indians, particularly Chingachgook and Uncas, but he frequently asserts that he has no Indian blood. As a cultural hybrid—a character who mixes elements of different cultures—Hawkeye provides a link between Indians and whites.
- Magua - The novel’s villain, he is a cunning Huron nicknamed Le Renard Subtil, or the Subtle Fox. Once a chief among his people, Magua was driven from his tribe for drunkenness. Because the English Colonel Munro enforced this humiliating punishment, Magua possesses a burning desire for retaliation against him.
- Cora Munro - Colonel Munro’s eldest daughter, a solemn girl with a noble bearing. Cora’s dark complexion derives from her mother’s “Negro” background. Cora attracts the love of the Mohican warrior Uncas and seems to return his feelings cautiously. She suffers the tragic fate of the sentimental heroine.
- Chingachgook - Uncas’s father, he is one of the two surviving members of the Mohican tribe. An old friend of Hawkeye, Chingachgook is also known as Le Gros Serpent—The Great Snake—because of his crafty intelligence.
- Uncas - Chingachgook’s son, he is the youngest and last member of the Indian tribe known as the Mohicans. A noble, proud, self-possessed young man, Uncas falls in love with Cora Munro and suffers tragic consequences for desiring a forbidden interracial coupling. Noble Uncas thwarts the evil Magua’s desire to marry Cora. Uncas also functions as Hawkeye’s adopted brother and learns about leadership from Hawkeye.
- Alice Munro - Colonel Munro’s younger daughter by his Scottish second wife, and Cora’s half-sister. Girlish and young, she tends to faint at stressful moments. Alice and Heyward love each other. Alice’s blonde hair, fair skin, and weakness make her a conventional counterpart to the racially mixed and fiery Cora.
B. Reaction Point - theme (物語の主旨、主題)
Interracial Love and Friendship
The Last of the Mohicans is a novel about race and the difficulty of overcoming racial divides. Cooper suggests that interracial mingling is both desirable and dangerous. Cooper lauds the genuine and longtime friendship between Hawkeye, a white man, and Chingachgook, a Mohican Indian. Hawkeye and Chingachgook’s shared communion with nature transcends race, enabling them to team up against Huron enemies and to save white military leaders like Heyward. On the other hand, though, Cooper shows his conviction that interracial romances are doomed and undesirable. The interracial love of Uncas and Cora ends in tragedy, and the forced interracial relationship between Cora and Magua is portrayed as unnatural. Through Cora, Cooper suggests that interracial desire can be inherited; Cora desires Indian men because her mother was part blackThe Role of Religion in the Wilderness
The character David Gamut allows Cooper to explore the relevance of religion in the wilderness. In theory at least, the American frontier is untouched by human culture. It is a fresh start, a piece of land not ruled by the conventions of European high culture, a place without a firm government or social code. Gamut’s aggressive Calvinism symbolizes the entrance of religion, a European model that enters the blank slate of the New World. We know Gamut is a Calvinist because he talks about predestination, the idea that God has a plan for each person and no amount of human effort can change that plan. Hawkeye’s frequent mockery of Gamut’s psalmody provides the novel’s comic relief. The mockery, which comes from the mouth of the hero, also suggests that institutional religion should not attempt to penetrate the wilderness and convert its inhabitants. Because Cooper makes Gamut ridiculous and Hawkeye heroic, it seems that, like Hawkeye, Cooper scoffs at Calvinism’s tenets.
C. Reaction Point - setting(設定、背景、場所)
- the French and the British in North America in 1757
- Fort Edward from Scotland
- Hudson River
D. My General Opinion
At first,I feel this novel is difficult for me becouse
I have never read novel in English although
I have ever read poem in English.
But I felt while reading and advancing it,
I have never read novel in English although
I have ever read poem in English.
But I felt while reading and advancing it,
very fascinating. Actually, I excited chapter8.
I want to see this movie some day.
I want to see this movie some day.
