Untitled Essay, Research Paper

James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey.

He was the boy of William and Elizabeth ( Fenimore ) Cooper, the twelfth of

13 kids ( Long, p. 9 ) . Cooper is known as one of the first great

American novelists, in many ways because he was the first American author

to derive international followings of his authorship. In add-on, he was possibly

the first novelist to & # 8220 ; show & # 8230 ; that native stuffs could animate

important inventive authorship & # 8221 ; ( p. 13 ) . In add-on his authorship, specifically

The Deerslayer, present a alone position of the Native American & # 8217 ; s experiences

and state of affairs. Many critics, for illustration, argue that The Deerslayer nowadayss

a moral sentiment about what occurred in the lives of the American Indians.

Marius Bewley has said that the book shows moral values

throughout the context of it. He says that from the really beginning, this

is symbolically made clear. The secret plan is a platform for the development of

moral subjects. The first contact the reader has with people in the book is

in the transition in which the two huntsmans find each other. & # 8220 ; The calls were

in different tones, obviously continuing from two work forces who had lost their

manner, and were seeking in different waies for their way & # 8221 ; ( Cooper,

p. 5 ) . Bewley states that this meeting is symbolic of losing one & # 8217 ; s manner morally,

and so trying to happen it once more through different waies. Says Bewley,

& # 8220 ; when the two work forces emerge from the forest into the small glade we are

face to face with & # 8230 ; two opposing moral visions of life which are embodied

in these two woodmans & # 8221 ; ( cited in Long, p. 121 ) .

Critic Donald Davie, nevertheless, disagrees. His contention

is that the secret plan is ill developed. & # 8220 ; It does non hang together ; has no

internal logic ; one incident does non lift out of another & # 8221 ; ( cited in Long,

p. 121 ) . But harmonizing to Robert Long, Bewley has a better appreciation of the significance

and presentation of thoughts throughout the book. Harmonizing to Long, although

the secret plan development may non be & # 8220 ; purely linear, & # 8221 ; it is still surely

coherent and makes sense. In add-on, Long feels that, as Bewley provinces,

the novel is a manner in and through which Cooper presents moral thoughts about

the predicament of the Native Americans ( p. 121 ) .

The narrative of The Deerslayer is simple. It is fresh which

tells the events which occur in the travels of a backwoodsman. His name is

Natty, and he is a immature adult male at merely twenty old ages old. Coming from New York

of the 18th century, he is unprepared in many ways for what he encounters

in the frontier. But he survives, flights, and learns many things over the

class of his escapades.

The two characters of Natty and Hurry are contrasted in

such as manner that Cooper presents his position of the Native Americans through

them. As before indicated, they symbolize two work forces with differing moral

aptitudes. Throughout the novel, the differences between the two show Cooper & # 8217 ; s

feelings approximately morality as it relates to the American Indians. As Long provinces,

& # 8220 ; The voices of the two work forces naming to one another at the beginning introduces

the thought of a universe that has lost its coherency, is already reduced to

disjuncture and atomization. Natty and Hurry hunt for a point of contact

yet move in different waies & # 8221 ; ( p. 122 ) .

Cooper & # 8217 ; s descriptions of Natty and Hurry early in the

novel do it obvious that they stand for opposite moral values. Hurry, for

illustration, is described by Cooper as holding & # 8220 ; a dashing, foolhardy, off-hand

mode, and physical restlessness & # 8221 ; ( Cooper, p. 6 ) . In fact, it is these

features of him that gave him his moniker by which he is called –

Hurry Scurry, although his existent name is Henry March. He is described as tall

and muscular, the & # 8220 ; magnificence that pervaded such a baronial build & # 8221 ; being the

merely thing that kept him from looking & # 8220 ; altogether vulgar & # 8221 ; ( p. 6 ) . The

Deerslayer & # 8217 ; s visual aspect, on the other manus, contrasts with Hurry & # 8217 ; s significantly.

Cooper indicates that non merely were the two work forces different in visual aspect,

but besides & # 8220 ; in character & # 8221 ; ( p. 6 ) . A small shorter than Hurry, he was besides

leaner. In add-on, he was non fine-looking like Hurry and, says Cooper, he

would non hold anything exceeding about his expressions had it non been for & # 8220 ; an

look that seldom failed to win upon those who had leisure to analyze

it, and to give to the feelings of assurance it created. This look

was merely that of guileless truth, sustained by an seriousness of intent,

and a earnestness of experiencing & # 8221 ; ( p. 6 ) .

Cooper contrasts these two characters early in the narrative

so that it is apparent that they will supply illustrations of contrasting behaviour

every bit good. It is made clear early on that the ulterior actions of both Hurry and

the Deerslayer will contrast in such a manner that the moral issues with which

Cooper was concerned would come to visible radiation.

Glimmerglass as the scene of the novel allows the contrast

between the two work forces to be seen even more strongly. As William P. Kelly ( 1983 )

provinces, the scene created by Cooper allows the narrative to hold a certain

myth-like quality, a quality which makes the instruction of a lesson by Cooper

all that much more acceptable. & # 8220 ; Cooper does non turn up his narration within

the flux of history, but evokes a sense of eternity consistent with the

universe of myth. For illustration, the scene is of & # 8220 ; the earliest yearss of colonial

history, & # 8221 ; a & # 8220 ; remote and befog & # 8221 ; period, lost in the & # 8220 ; mists of time. & # 8221 ; In

puting the background of the narrative in this manner, the events become less of import

in respects to historical value and truth & # 8211 ; their importance is derived

from their ability to learn one lessons about morality.

Within this scene, so, the contrasts between Natty and Hurry are brought

across even clearer. But it is another character, Tom Hutter, who besides plays

an of import function in Cooper & # 8217 ; s presentation of the Indians. Hutter & # 8217 ; s significance

foremost involves where he lives. His house is located straight in the centre

of Glimmerglass. This suggests, symbolically at least, that he is involved

in the centre of activities, whether moral or immoral, within Glimmerglass.

In add-on, more than life in the centre of the land, Hutter has besides

laid claim, nevertheless unofficial, to the land. Early on in the novel the reader

learns that this is the instance. Shortly after Natty and Hurry run into up, they

are canoeing down the H2O. Natty remarks that the land is so beautiful,

and asks Hurry, & # 8220 ; Do you state, Hurry, that there is no adult male who calls himself

lawful proprietor of all these glorifications? & # 8217 ; ( p. 22 ) . To this Hurry responds, & # 8220 ; None

but the King & # 8230 ; .but he has gone so far off that his cla

im will ne’er problem

old Tom Hutter, who has got ownership, and is like to maintain it every bit long as

his life lasts & # 8221 ; ( p. 22 ) .

In holding the characters of Natty and Hurry speak of Hutter like this, mentioning

to him in an about fabulous sense as though he is a fable, Cooper is

puting the phase for the development of Hutter & # 8217 ; s character, besides in contrast

to Natty & # 8217 ; s. It is in Tom Hutter & # 8217 ; s place, when Natty and Hurry foremost arrive

in the beginning of the book, that they begin to speak about hunting and the

violent death of both animate beings and work forces. Natty remarks that he has the repute

as being the lone adult male & # 8220 ; who had shed so much blood of animate beings that had non

shed the blood of adult male & # 8221 ; ( p. 28 ) . He says this with pride, evidently non looking

with high respect upon the barbarian slaughter of other work forces. But Hurry & # 8217 ; s response

shows that he looks at this in a wholly different position. He says that

he is afraid that people will believe that Natty is & # 8220 ; chicken-hearted. & # 8221 ; Then

he goes on to notice that & # 8220 ; For my portion I account game, a Redskin, and a

Frenchman as reasonably much the same thing & # 8230 ; one has no demand to be over-scrupulous

when it & # 8217 ; s the right clip to demo the flint & # 8221 ; ( p. 28 ) .

Cooper presents this duologue between Natty and Hurry in order to evidently

contrast their moral characters. First, he has Natty speak, with evident

pride, about the fact that in all the land, he has the repute for killing

more cervid than anyone else, while ne’er holding taken one individual human life.

But Hurry & # 8217 ; s response to this is that Natty is a & # 8220 ; chicken-hearted & # 8221 ; single.

In Natty & # 8217 ; s point of position, animate beings, Indians, and Frenchman are all the same,

and killing one is the same as killing another.

In this, Cooper is clearly showing a position about the worth of American indians within

the society of this clip. Natty & # 8217 ; s position that killing other work forces should be avoided

is the correct and & # 8220 ; right & # 8221 ; position. He sets Natty up as a moral character,

specifically in comparing to Hurry to which he compares Natty frequently. Hurry,

so, blatantly states that he thinks that there is nil which separates

the violent death of a cervid from the violent death of a adult male. Cooper nowadayss this position

in order to demo what he feels is the right manner. It is obvious that Cooper

wants Natty to show Cooper & # 8217 ; s position of the Native Americans. Natty & # 8217 ; s inability

to look at them as mere animate beings shows that he believes that they are good

people, merely the same as anyone else. In fact, Hurry is depicted more as

the scoundrel, while Natty is presented as the hero.

As their conversation continues, Natty asks Hurry if the lake has a name.

When Hurry tells him that it, in fact, does non, Natty thinks of this as

positive. & # 8220 ; I & # 8217 ; m glad it has no name, or, at least, no paleface name ; for their

christenings ever foretell waste and devastation & # 8221 ; ( p. 30 ) . Here, we can

see Natty & # 8217 ; s ideas on the significance of whether an Indian or a white

adult male has named the H2O. He remarks that he would mind if a white adult male had

named it. He believes that white work forces traditionally conveying with them environmental

harm & # 8211 ; they would hold ruined the natural beauty of it. The Indians, on

the other manus, treated land with much more regard. Cooper makes it evident

that this is the manner he feels in holding Natty remark on the land as such.

Hurry, nevertheless, responds in a different manner. He tells Natty that the Indian

name for it is & # 8220 ; Glimmerglass. & # 8221 ; Then he goes on to province that the white work forces

decided to maintain this name, at least on the side. & # 8220 ; I am glad they & # 8217 ; ve been

compelled to maintain the redmen & # 8217 ; s name, for it would be excessively difficult to rob them

of both land and name! & # 8221 ; ( p. 30 ) .

In other words, Hurry is saying the obvious fact that everything will finally

be taken off from the Native Americans. Any land that they might value and

attention for today will be confiscated and fought for by the white work forces tomorrow.

But the exclaiming point at the terminal of the sentence suggests that, instead

than a sad remark accepting the inevitable, Hurry says this with hilarity and

exhilaration. To him it is like a gag, that the Indians will be allowed to

maintain the name for the land but lose the land itself.

Cooper, in the above duologue between Natty and Hurry, is showing a position

of the immorality involved in the interactions between the Native Americans

and the white work forces. In Cooper & # 8217 ; s head, the Native Americans respected and cared

for the land much more than the white work forces did. This is evident in his quotation mark

from Hurry, that white work forces ever brought & # 8220 ; waste and devastation & # 8221 ; to set down.

Second, Cooper besides thought that the changeless combat, subjugation, and

violent death of the American Indians was incorrect. To Cooper, Natty represented the

good and moral point of position on this issue, while Hurry represented the immoral

and barbarous side, express joying about the atrocious truths of the land.

All throughout the book The Deerslayer, Cooper contrasts the characters of

Hurry and Natty in order to show his positions of Native Americans. With Hurry

as the 1 who has a racist attitude, believing that the deceases of American indians

are deceases which do non count, Natty is the moral 1. The contrast between

these two characters allows Cooper to demo the contrast between morality

and immorality. Hurry goes around killing Indians, believing that their deceases

are undistinguished. Natty, killing his first Indian in a affair of self-defence,

holds the adult male in his weaponries as he dies experiencing a sense of bonding and brotherhood

with the deceasing Indian. Throughout the book, Natty is shown larning many

different things, such as woodcraft, and increasing in moral stature. Hurry,

on the other manus, is presented as going more and more selfish, until

his remarks by themselves uncover his ignorance and he loses credibleness

as a character.

The book The Deerslayer is a narrative in which James Fenimore Cooper nowadayss

a position of the Native Americans. His thought is that they were natural proprietors

to the land, being there foremost. In add-on, they loved, valued and respected

the land in a manner that was non common to most white work forces. Finally, he believed

that they were human existences, entitled to populate their lives freely merely as

anyone else. In demoing the two sides of sentiment on this issue & # 8211 ; Hurry and

Natty & # 8211 ; Cooper sets the book up as a narrative of good and evil, right and incorrect.

His thoughts, through the ideas and actions of Hurry and Natty, are clearly

presented.

Plants Cited

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Deerslayer. New York: The Heritage Press, 1961.Kelly, William P. Plotting America & # 8217 ; s Past. Illinois: Southern Illinois University

Imperativeness,

1983.Long, Robert Emmet. James Fenimore Cooper. New York: Continuum Printing

Company, 1990.