Coopers Chingachgook :: essays papers

Coopers Chingachgook The Death of Chingachgook as the Apogee of the tragedy of the Indian Nation in Cooper^s The Pioneers The Pioneers, written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1823 opens the popular series of books about the adventures of an inhabitant of the New England forests Natty Bampo ^ a white man, a scout, and a hunter. However, the novelist does not merely narrate the life of Natty, his main aim is to present the whole situation on the Eastern Coast of America in the seventeenth century. In The Pioneers, in particular, Cooper writes about the new settlers in America, about their conquest of the lands, and about the tragic extinction of the Indian people, who had been proud owners of the lands of America. One of the most important moments in this book, and even in the whole cycle, is the scene of the death of Natty Bampo^s best friend Chingachgook, the last representative of the Indian tribe of Mohicans. In this scene the author presents his most important ideas about the vices of the new settlers, hypocrisy of Christianity, and the tragedy of the native inhabitants of the American lands. C! ooper actually makes the death of the Mohican sound as a final chord in the calamitous history of the Indian people, who under the onslaught of European civilization are doomed to disappear. He makes the dying Indian chief a symbol for his perishing nation, presenting him at the last minutes of his life in his national costume and believing in the Indian morals and gods. Moreover, by misspelling his name on the gravestone, Cooper redoubles the tragic implication that after the death of Chingachgook his culture is forgotten and lost, and a meaningful Indian name loses its importance for the white people who come to live in the formally Indian forests. Towards the end of The Pioneers the tragic story about the Indians who were expelled from their lands by the white Europeans, reaches its apogee. The scene of the Chingachgook^s dying is full of sadness, pain, and hopelessness. In a very meaningful way Cooper presents his Indian hero on the threshold of death, sitting "on a trunk of a fallen oak" (p.381). Thus he hints at the identity between the old chief and the tree, implying that once young and strong they both are now old and lifeless. Moreover, as the fallen tree is now disconnected from the company of the strong young forest mates, thus also Chingachgook with his "tawny visage" (p.381) is lonely among the liveliness of the newly established colonies. So Cooper writes that in place of the once virgin forests where the