James Fenimore Cooper's "Firsts"
(With thanks to Mrs. Anita Hammerle, an exceptional English teacher in Okemos, Michigan, for her excellent notes she gave me when I taught her classes one semester)
| 1. Father of sea fiction novels (and movies) | ||||||
2.
Invented many
prototypes:
|
||||||
| 3. Romantic reaction against nature's exploitation | ||||||
| 4. First attempt to bring Ebonics or other dialects to the American novel | ||||||
| 5. First attempt to use American history: Revolutionary War | ||||||
| 6. First to write about Romantic theme of isolation-- white hero is off alone, raised by Indians, understands both cultures, fits completely in neither | ||||||
| 7. In specific ways, promoted new theme of cultural relativism--not one "right way" many right ways | ||||||
| 8. Described the tragedy of the advance of white man/falling back of Native American | ||||||
| 9. First to write a novel with a prequel, story, sequel, etc. |
| Cooper wrote a series known as The Leatherstocking Tales | ||
|
The Pioneers |
1823 | Natty is in his 70's and is called Leatherstocking |
| Last of the Mohicans | 1826 | Nathaniel is middle-aged |
| The Prairie | 1827 | Nathaniel is in his 80's and dying |
| The Pathfinder | 1840 | Nathaniel is in his 30's |
| The Deerslayer | 1841 | In his early 20's |
|
Natty Bumppo character type: The original hero of the American West |
| 1. He embodies aspirations to escape civilization: Father of literary descendents like Huck Finn |
|
2. He is a skilled woodsman: knows rifles, animals, woods, Indians, has superhuman endurance, does good deeds, but he lacks the white man's vices: the ambition for wealth and the killer instinct He has a sense of natural piety...sees God as part of the wilderness. Frontiersman didn't feel this way but plundered the wilderness for his own profit. |
| 3. He is moral, honest, innocent, wise, strong, resourceful, able to resist temptations of civilized life...and he always wins |
| 4. He maintains a mystic awareness of the greatness of nature |
| 5. His reverence for life and nature shows in his words and actions |
| 6. He sees contradictions or ironies in society--questions things others don't |
| 7. He appreciates primitivism--respects the ways other cultures explain and order their viewpoints and actions |
| 8. However, the novel contains, in contrast, stereotypes of Indians as good or bad... and of women as only good and pure... |
Research Writing Assignment info here!
|
Steps:
© P Carnie, February 2003 Last modified 03/27/2008
|
Easy!!
One step at a time.. 
