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Native American Women Essay

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The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper was a prominent American Romantic novel during the 19th century that shaped the distinct nature of America. By setting his novel in the American wilderness during the French and Indian War, Cooper explores the unique social and cultural aspects of early America while criticizing certain features. When examined through the lens of gender, James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans criticizes European men and women for being frail and inferior compared to their Native American counterparts.
Cooper illustrates the European men in The Last of the Mohicans as overconfident and fearful in the realm of the Native Americans compared to their humble and bold Indian counterparts. The European men …show more content…
Cooper’s European female characters in the novel suggest that women distract and provide temptation for their male counterparts. Porte explains that “what Cora’s countenance utters, of course--even, as Cooper would have it, in spite of her conscious intentions--is the dark secret of human sexuality” (1). Even a seemingly virtuous female figure like Cora represents the center of sexual temptations that does no good for society. There are also European women like Alice who are “lighthearted, weak, and innocent” and “weeping and fainting as she confronts a series of purely physical dangers” (Haberly 4). Based on Haberly’s characterization of Alice, European women’s weak and emotionally fragile natures can logically put themselves and others at a greater risk for danger in the wilderness. On the other hand, however, Cooper illustrates Indian women as independent and self-reliant figures. During one of the skirmishes in the novel, “the squaws seized clubs, axes, or whatever weapon of offense first offered itself to their hands, and rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was at hand” (Cooper 288-289). The Indian women are stronger and more productive in physically dangerous situations than the European ones and Cooper praises this zeal of Indian women to act boldly in a time of

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