Covert War: Nature Vs. Culture In The Last Of The Mohicans

In James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, a superficial reading might depict the novel as the story of a battle between societies. Yet there is an underlying depiction of a far more vast conflict. From the beginning of the novel, the reader is guided by descriptions of the struggle between the two entities. Cooper writes, "there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe" (11). It seems clear from this passage that Cooper is establishing for the reader a battle scene of sorts, in which the opposing sides are at war with one another. That is, nature is under attack by a culture determined to "civilize" it; while the land uses the hostilities of darkness and concealment as weapons against society, society assaults nature with domination and settlement. Such an introduction immediately sets up a sense of antagonism between nature and culture that is played out throughout the remainder of the book.

Perhaps the strongest argument pointing to Cooper's intention to cast nature as more than a mere backdrop for his story can be found in the extensive passages containing minutely detailed descriptions of the land. For example,

One example of Cooper's somewhat hidden agenda can be found in Chapter 29. While the chapter begins with a narration of a shooting contest, the real focus is on Tanemund's judgment, which is heavily weighted by his concerns over the loss of Native American lands. Tamenund's response to Magua and Cora indicates an awareness of the loss of the land: "It was but yesterday . . . that the children of the Lenape were masters of the world! The fishes of the salt-lake, the birds, the beasts, and the Mengwe of the woods owned them for sagamores" (305).