The Last of the Mohicans by:James Fenimore Cooper

1. The Last of the Mohicansby:James Fenimore Cooper Daniel Pearson 2011 Pd. 6

2. James Fenimore Cooper • Lived from September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851 • was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece

3. Plot • Set in 1757, the novel tells the story of Hawk-eye, a colonial settler adopted by a Mohican family at thedeath of his parents, as he aids a British military party through the forests of upstate New Yorkduring the French and Indian War. In the war for control of the American colonies, the British,with Colonial militia and Mohican allies, take on the French, allied with the Hurons. A buddingromance between Hawk-eye and Cora Munro, the daughter of a British colonel, is interwoveninto this political story of war and colonialism on the early American frontier.

4. Characters • Magua (ma-gwah) – the villain of the piece; a Huron chief driven from his tribe for drunkenness and later whipped by the British Army (also for drunkenness), for which he blames Colonel Munro. Also known as "Sly Fox." • Chingachgook (chin-GATCH-gook) – last chief of the Mohican tribe; escort to the traveling Munro sisters, father to Uncas. Unami Delaware word meaning "Big Snake."[7] • Uncas – the son of Chingachgook and the titular "Last of the Mohicans" (meaning the last pure-blooded Mohican born).[8] • Natty Bumppo/ Hawkeye – a frontiersman who, by chance meeting in the forest, becomes an escort to the Munro sisters. Also known to the Indians and the French as "La Longue Carabine" on account of his long rifle and shooting skills. • Cora Munro – dark-haired daughter of Colonel Munro. Her mother, whom Munro met and married in the West Indies was a mulatto,[9] half-white half-African-Caribbean. In the novel, Cora is termed a quadroon at one point.[10] • Alice Munro – Cora's younger, blonde half-sister, the daughter of Alice Graham, who was the love of Munro's life when he was young, but whom he was able to marry only much later in life. • Colonel Munro – the sisters' father, a British army colonel in command of Fort William Henry. • Duncan Heyward – a British army major from Virginia who falls in love with Alice Munro. • David Gamut – a psalmodist (teacher of psalm singing) also known as "the singing master" due to the fact that he sang for every event. • General Daniel Webb – Colonel Munro's commanding officer, originally stationed at Albany, who later takes command at Fort Edward (from where he cannot or will not come to Colonel Munro's aid when Fort William Henry is besieged by the French). • General Marquis de Montcalm – the French commander-in-chief, referred to by the Hurons and other Indian allies of the French as "The great white father of the Canadas". • Tamenund – An ancient, wise, and revered Delaware Indian sage who has outlived three generations of warriors. He is the "Sachem" of the Delaware

5. Magua • Magua is a Huron Indian chief and the main villain in the novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. This historical novel is set at the time of the • French and Indian War. He is also known by the French alias "Le Renard Subtil" ("The Wily Fox"). • Magua is the enemy of Colonel Munro, the commandant of Fort William Henry, and attempts on several occasions to abduct the colonel's daughters, Cora and Alice. He also assists the French leader, the Marquis de Montcalm, in his attack on the fort.

6. Chingachgook • A lone Mohican chief and companion of the series' hero Natty Bumppo. Chingachgook married Wah-ta-Wah who bore him a son Uncas, but she died young. Uncas, at his birth "last of the Mohicans"grew to manhood but was killed in a battle with renegade Magua. Chingachgook dies as an old man in the novel The Pioneers and so is the actual Last of the Mohicans, having outlived his son

7. Uncas • was a sachem of the Mohegan who through his alliance with the English colonists in New England against other Indian tribes made the Mohegan the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut

8. Some of James Fenimore Cooper’s other works • Afloat And Ashore: A Sea Tale A novel • Autobiography of a Pocket-Hankerchief A novelette • Crater: Or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific, The A novel • Deerslayer, TheA historical romance novel, 'Leatherstocking Tales' series, #1 • Last of the Mohicans, The A novel, 'Leatherstocking Tales' series, #2 • Monikins, The A novel • Oak Openings A novel • Pathfinder: The Inland Sea, The A historical novel, 'Leatherstocking Tales' series, #3 • Pilot: A Tale of the Sea, The A historical novel • Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna: A Descriptive Tale A historical novel, 'Leatherstocking Tales' series, #4 • Prairie, The An adventure and historical novel, 'Leatherstocking Tales' series, #5 of 5

9. Works Cited • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fenimore_Cooper • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James_Fenimore_Cooper_by_Jarvis.jpg • http://mediapede.org/filmhistory/guides/last_of_the_mohicans.pdf • http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/207/studi01cds7.jpg/sr=1 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chingachgook