James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 and by the time of his death; he was considered the “national novelist” of America. In his novel, The Last of the Mohicans, we have a classic story set in the 1700 's. During this time, the French and Indian War is raging, complicated by an additional dispute between two Indian tribes, the Mohicans and the Hurons. Throughout the book we see characters with hearts that are strong and brave, but in spite of the characters, we see the inhumanity of the cruelty of the war. In The Last of the Mohicans, the theme is a conflict between civilization and savagery, and Cooper portrays a clash between races/cultures through the interracial friendship of Hawkeye and Chingachgook, through the barbarity between the Mohicans and the Hurons, and through the interracial love between Cora and Uncas.
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Hawkeye and Chingachgook have an interracial friendship due to the fact that Hawkeye is white and Chingachgook is a Mohican Indian. The barbarous actions between the Mohicans and the Hurons are the constant battles they have throughout the book. Since Cora is not white and Uncas is a Mohican Indian, they have an interracial love that is forbidden. The book is characterized by a series of thrilling attacks, captures, fights, and rescues; and Cooper does a good job of portraying the clashes of races/cultures discussed. At the heart of the novel is a poignant interracial friendship between the white man, Hawkeye, and the Mohican, Chingachgook, suggestive of Cooper’s misery with the cruelties that would eventually result in the death of Chingachgooks son Uncas, “the last of the