Sunday, November 10, 2019
James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans Essay
In James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (1992), we witnessed death, integrity, pride, love, violence and revenge portrayed through the struggle over a piece of land between the French and English in a war that took place sometime in 1757. Not only that, since the novel was written in the early 1990’s, when women’s liberation and â€Å"girl power†are the predominant themes, the author also incorporated a different form of struggle between the main characters in the novel.            I will focus on the character of Alice and Cora, the two heroines in the story and will attempt to make a comparison of the two characters in light of the commonly-accepted views on what a woman should be.            Alice and Cora Munro, as portrayed in the novel, are sisters who embarked on a journey to visit their father. Their journey, as can be expected is doomed from the beginning and is fraught with violence, revenge, conflict and emotional drama. In the novel, Cora, the older sister was depicted as a strong-willed woman who has no qualms in making her own decisions. Alice, the younger sister, is on the other hand, took the role of a fragile, weak-hearted woman who is always in need of rescuing and assistance.            It is apparent from the start that this difference in personality will probably result in conflict between the two sisters. It is surprising though that there was no remarkable conflict as between the two sisters in the novel. In fact, it is their stark differences of personalities which kept these two sisters together. Cora, the ever reliable and brave older sister is always looking out for the welfare of her younger sister. Alice, depicting the traditional notion of femininity, graciously lets her sister and their escorts do their task of protecting her.            It is also worth stressing that the personality differences between Cora and Alice extends to their physical appearance. Cora is a brunette and has a strong feature while Alice is blond-haired thereby accentuating even more her frail physical features. It seems that Cooper had in mind the traditional, stereotypical notion of weak-blond-strong-brunette syndrome when he came up with his set of heroine characters.            Interestingly enough, the heroines in the novel find themselves in a complex entanglement of emotions and feelings. As can be expected, the strong-willed Cora falls for reckless Uncas while Alice, the sentimental heroine, on the other hand, captures the heart of the perfect gentleman, Major Heyward.            In sum, although Alice and Cora were portrayed as having opposite personalities and physical attributes in the novel, it also cannot be denied that in more ways than one, they are also alike. Both are loving daughters whose main purpose from the onset of the journey, is to reunite with their father. Alice and Cora while seemingly in contrast in personalities also share the same attributes inherent in all women which is the ability to love and show intense feelings toward the opposite sex. The brunette-blond contrast is not really an issue here and it is not uncommon for sisters, especially half-sisters to be totally different in physical features.            I think that James Fennimore Cooper, in coming up with the character of Alice and Cora, simply wanted to impress on his readers the two types of women and how these differences can be reconciled and co-exist in a given situation. Furthermore, in a contemporary period, women are seen as possessing diverse traits and personalities akin to Cora and Alice. The stereotyping of blonds and brunettes unfortunately has not been obliterated although, with the advent of women’s liberation, it is difficult nowadays to categorize women into two limited persona such as that of Alice and Cora. Bibliography: Cooper, James Fennimore. The Last of the Mohicans. Bantam Classics, 1826. Ebert, Roger. â€Å"The Last of the Mohicans.†Chicago Sun-Times 25 Sept. 25, 1992. Kempley, Rita. â€Å"The Last of the Mohicans.†The Washington Post. 25 Sept. 25, 1992. â€Å"The Last of the Mohicans: Summaries and Commentaries.†8 July 2008 .
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