On the Last of the Mohicans

I’m not sure that my first review was quite as just as it could have been. To start off, this is not a well-written novel. In fact, the story is quite garbage. There are times where it catches your attention for a few chapters, but the rest is a meandering mess that ought to have been cut out of the final draft.

That said, I think the most interesting aspect of the book is the way that it both responds to and participates in American racial formation. Cora, for instance, is “distantly descended” from slaves, and one of the characters gives a large exposition to the Lenni Lenape on the chief characteristic of the “black,” “white,” and “red” races. There is a lot of negotiation between characters here about the boundaries between American Indians and Europeans, and Hawkeye (la Longue Carabine) bends these boundaries to the point where it’s unclear where he stands in racial terms. The text is filled with racist garbage, especially the depiction of Native Americans (especially Hurons and, to lesser extent, the Delaware) en masse becoming aggressive at any slight (we don’t see the same characteristic of British and French soldiers here, although they are very much present). The amorphous “racial” group is a serious problem here and needs to be contended with. Nevertheless, it’s useful to historicize and analyze the text.

It’s best accompanied with The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. The arguments made by Richard White speak directly to the text.