James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the Mohicans Essay -- Last Mohican

James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the MohicansThe French and Indian warfare of the eighteenth century had uniquely complex qualities, matched by the gravitational force of its outcome. The myriad of cultures involved the French, Canadian, American, English, Algonquians, and Iroquois whom make this era fascinating. The multi-ethnic element made it a war built upon fragile alliances, often undermined by factional disputes and shifting fortunes. baseless as it was, its battlefields encompassed some of the most beautiful country to be found anywhere. Its richness in diverse cultures, the severity of its bloody violence, and the beauty of its landscape, all agree to make this an era with great depth of interest. It is entertaining and educational to witness a re-enactment event of a historical claim and novel called The Last of the Mohicans.In the wake of the 1992 debates about Columbus, the discovery of the Americas, and whether terms such as holocaust, genocide, and racism should b e applied to what happened to Native Americans, Michael Manns film remake of James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the Mohicans continues a subprogram of historical erasure or forgetting that Cooper and his contemporaries began. The sentimental racism expressed in Coopers novel involves the ideas of the auto-genocide of savagery and the inevitable extinction of all Native Americans. though Mann purported to take great pains in his film to be historically accurate, the film is only accurate in relation to trivial details. It thoroughly scrambles major(ip) aspects of Coopers text, including converting the ageing Natty Bumppo into a young sex symbol (Daniel Day-Lewis). More importantly, the film completely erases Coopers sentimental racism by, for instance, turning Chingachgook rather than his son, Uncas, into the last of his tribe, and thereby peremptory the motif of the futureless child central to that racism. But in eliminating Coopers racism, the film in a sense perfects the novel, because the sentimentalism that softened the racism was already a name of erasure or forgetting.Reading the novel, The Last of the Mohicans, I was actually able to appreciate Coopers work, as it was interesting and very different from the movie. spell it is true that he is long-winded and very shallowly treats character development, I think that the original work does merit its study. I found that ... ...nd political correctness. on that point are no dialogs to speak of, no historical, anthropological, geographic, political, social, explanations or orientation. So you dont learn much about world history from their conversations and dialogue. What you do excavate about the history of this period is by soaking in the environment, traditions, rules, surroundings, behaviors, clothing, and styles of living.The movie and novel of The Last of the Mohicans are both great representations of the French and Indian War as they are attempts to resurrect and redefine the American hero. There was an emphasis on the concept that no man has dominion over another. The novel and film both have strong and weak parts that help us understand and to learn the styles and ways of this time period. They are both great tools for accomplishment about modern world history in their own ways about war and tragedy. The Last of the Mohicans is a bold and stirring story that leave behind always be very memorable adventure years to come. BibliographyThe Last of the Mohicans. Produced by Michael Mann. 1 hour 54 minutes. 1992.Cooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans. Albany relegate University of New York Press, 1983.