My Featured Novel

The Last of the Mohicans


I. About the Novel

Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, are traveling with Major Duncan Heyward from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, where Munro is in command, and acquire another companion in David Gamut, a naive singing teacher. They are guided through the forest by a native named Magua, who leads them through a shortcut unaccompanied by the British militia. Heyward is dissatisfied with Magua's shortcut, and the party roam unguided and finally join Natty Bumppo (known as Hawk-eye), a scout for the British, and his two Mohican friends, Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Heyward becomes suspicious of Magua, and Hawk-eye and the Mohicans agree with his suspicion, that Magua is a Huron scout secretly allied with the French. Upon discovery as such, Magua escapes; and in the (correct) belief that Magua will return with Huron reinforcements, Hawk-eye and the Mohicans lead their new companions to a hidden cave on an island in a river. They are attacked there by the Hurons, and when ammunition is exhausted, Hawk-eye and the Mohicans escape, with a promise to return for their companions. Magua and the Hurons capture Heyward, Gamut, and the Munro sisters, and Magua offers to spare the party if Cora becomes his wife, but she refuses. Upon a second refusal, he sentences the prisoners to death. Hawk-eye and the Mohicans rescue all four, and lead them to a dilapidated building that was involved with a battle between the Indians and the British some years ago. They are nearly attacked again, but the Hurons leave the area, rather than disturb the graves of their own fellow-countrymen. The next day, Hawk-eye leads the party to Fort Henry, past a siege by the French army. Munro sends Hawk-eye to Fort Edward for reinforcements; but he is captured by the French, who deliver him to Fort Henry without the letter. Heyward returns to Colonel Munro and announces his love for Alice, and Munro gives his permission for Heyward's courtship.


Works Cited （参考文献）
"The Last of the Mohicans." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 June 2016. Web. 06 June 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Mohicans>.

II. Versions of the Novel in the Mass Media

Works Cited （参考文献）

Http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiNxWoOJDqZAzp1yhGg8nJg. "THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1977) - Steve Forrest, Ned Romero, Don Shanks." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 07 June 2016.

III. About the Author

James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 15, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century.

His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. He lived most of his life in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William on property that he owned. Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and, in his later years, contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society, but was expelled for misbehavior.

Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U.S. Navy as a Midshipman, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. The novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about counterespionage set during the Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also wrote numerous sea stories, and his best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians, Cooper's works on the early U.S. Navy have been well received, but they were sometimes criticized by his contemporaries. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece.

IV. My Reaction

 A. Reaction Point- character(登場人物)

• an attribute that is determined by a gene orgroup of genes
• Magua – the villain: a Huron chief driven from his tribe for drunkenness; known as Le Renard Subtil.
  Chingachgook - last chief of the Mohican tribe, escort to the Munro sisters, father to Uncas. His name was Unami Delaware word meaning "Big Snake."
  Uncas – the son of Chingachgook and the eponymous "Last of the Mohicans" .He is also known as "Le Cerf Agile", the Bounding Elk.
  
  
  Nathaniel Bumppo - a frontiersman who becomes an escort to the Munro sisters. Known to the Indians and the French as La longue carabine for his marksmanship and signature weapon.

B. Reaction Point - tone(語調)

• a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages
• In the novel, Hawkeye refers to Lake George as the Horican. Cooper felt that Lake George was too plain, while the French name, Le Lac du St. Sacrement, was "too complicated". Horican he found on an old map of the area; it was a French transliteration of a native group who had once lived in the area.
• I thought that I changed even the name clearly if I thought that it was complicated, and a laborer did not be considered to be it.

 C. Reaction Point - setting(背景) 

• arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted
• At the time of Cooper's writing, many people believed that the Native Americans were disappearing, and would ultimately be assimilated or fail to survive. Especially in the East, their numbers continued to decline. At the same time, the author was interested in the period of the frontier of transition, when more colonists were increasing pressure on the Native Americans. He grew up in Cooperstown, New York, which his father had established on what was then a western frontier of settlement; it developed after the Revolutionary War.
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D. My General Opinion
This novel is very nice.
I was impressed to read this novel very much.

I thought that it was splendid to help sacrificing oneself for a beloved person.

I thought that I wanted to become the cool person who could sacrifice oneself for a beloved person.