1) The Last of the Mohicans
Important character/s
Magua
Calvinist who believes in the doctrine of fate, the notion that who is to be saved and who damned has already been decreed by God..
Teaches sacred music but Hawkeye has no time for his songs and thinks he should have a real profession.
Not a fighting man but he survives the Huron attacks by signing sacred songs
Race
Magua on “race”- ch29 pg339-340
Munro on “race”- ch33 pg329
Hawk-eye and Magua- polygenetic racist
Munro and girls- very anti-racist/ anti-discriminatory hope Duncan Heyward- civilized/ savage position
Which position does the novel itself adopt?
Doesn't take a position to allow different perspectives
Symbols
Hawkeye being the last of the Mohicans
Symbol in uncle toms cabin, toms cabin representing the last of the salves (era)
Epistemology how we know what we know
What two epistemologies are portrayed?
Hawk-eye ch3 pg37/ ch13 pg141/ ch24 pg279
Magua- ch10 pg105
Heyward- ch5 pg53
Blood
Hawk-eye and Magua on “blood”- ch8 pg88/ ch17 pg201
Book learning: womanly, reading uncertain and multivalent black marks on paper. Settles. Lies concerning civilizations
Dialectical: Heyward the civilized soldier becomes Heyward the wilderness adventurer, becomes Heyward the married man, retuning to civilization at the end of the novel, perhaps renewed and “better”
Masquerade pretending to be someone one is not
Heyward- as a fool, highlighting his status before he fully learns empiricism Heyward- ch21 pg248-249
Magua- Ch27 pg319
Is Magua right the beavers are distinct from persons?
Whites into the red world
Reds into the black world
Uncas and Cora said to be white figures
Uncas travels into the reds world to become more of a “strong’ figure
White, reds, and blacks are all links in a chain of civilization in Mohicans
The “whites” must remember to keep a part of their “redness” before all Native Americans are gone forever
Quotes
The party encounters an Indian runner named Magua who advises to lead them and because he is of different color they are wary of his