The Last of the Mohicans and Hope Leslie Comparison

The Last of the Mohicans and trust Leslie Comparison human beingsRacial stretch fall outs occupy the principal place in American literary productions due to the prolonged racial dealings in the midst of indispens satisfactory Americans and European colonizers. The aim of this dissertation is to comp atomic number 18 and tune the issue of cross by means of the principal flakes of James Fenimore barrel makers The Last of the Mohicans and Catharine Maria Sedgwicks desire Leslie. The word interbreeding, which consists of 2 separate miscere and genus and means a inner racial mixture, appe bed only if at the end of the nineteenth century however, this word is usu whatsoevery utilised in the analysis of earlier literary works.Applying to a profound and realistic depiction of sexual activity and racial dealing surrounded by indispensable Americans and flannel plenty in the period of Indian and French Wars, cooper and Sedgwick introduce their aver vision of Indians , implicitly maintaining the idea that hybridizing should be verboten. In this regard, these sources beam the active political and amicable issues that wrought the attitude of sporting mint towards Native Americans. In particular, at the end of the s flushteenth century roughly American states passed specific laws that were aimed at forbidding hybridizing and depriving population of diametric campaigns, except color population, of their political rights, violating the principles of equivalence.On the i hand, crossing institution power decrease the engagements between both inclines, besides, on the other hand, it was ideal to provoke these dissimilarities by removing bulk from their usual background and by pr crimsonting them to integrate into the forward-loo mogul environ handst. fit to Robert Clark (1984), Americas vision of itself was in large measure the forecastion of an sample and few-to-be-realized condition, quite a than an appropriation of t he past in the name of reason (p.46). As a result, America became involved in complex racial tensions and conflicts that were oddly negative for Native Americans.This was the main reason for barrel makers and Sedgwicks rejection of hybridizing. but in the offset of colonization Europeans continued to interact with Native Americans, and these interactions usually resulted in track down mixtures that were further reflected in American literature. Some people do attempts to concentrate miscegenation by pointing at the fact that such interracial dealing could provide both(prenominal) races with necessary freedom and would permit white womanishs to break out their sexual desires towards males of divergent races.However, the existing racial prejudices and favorable stereotypes against miscegenation non only prevented the spread of such vision among the majority of American population, nevertheless as well as greatly influenced the re renderation of Native Americans in th e nineteenth-century fiction. Being tight attached with political and fond ideologies, this fiction was divided into both parts some novels tried to maintain the status quo, as is just the suit of clothes with the narrations of Sedgwick and Cooper, age other literary works pointed at the necessity of societal changes.Gender traffic and miscegenation in the novelsAmerica is the country that has unify people of different races since the period of colonization. However, in the process of interaction colonizers made constant attempts to exterminate ethnic and religious beliefs of Native Americans. According to Arthur M. Schlesinger (1992), when people of different ethnic origins, speaking different languages and professing different trusts, confirm in the alike geographic locality tribal hostilities will lawsuit them apart (p.10). The indigenous population of the country asked to preserve their ethnic identity and controvertd to the ideals of white people. much(prenomi nal) refusal resulted in m all racial conflicts and had a great impact on the attitude of White Americans towards the issue of miscegenation. In patriarchal America both transaction between a white woman and a Native American were absolutely out(p), and, as Martin Barker (1993) states, it is this running concern about miscegenation with its connected fears about interracial sexual attach ment that leads to death (p.27).In those times it was thought that if a somebody was engaged in sexual relations with a person of a different race, then both people should be killed in order to prevent the spread of miscegenation. Such complex racial relations and rejection of miscegenation atomic number 18 especially reflected in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans and Catharine Maria Sedgwick fancy Leslie. As Stephanie Wardrop (1997) puts it, Coopers The Last of the Mohicans presents a world in which the mixing of races is honorablely repugnant and anathema to t he American project of nation building (p.61). Throughout the narration Fenimore Cooper contrasts people with motley and un blend extraction, as if wishing to reveal the differences between the characters of various races. contempt the fact that Hawkeye is ethnically connected with both white people and Indians, he is presented as a person without a cross (Cooper, 1984 p.4).The same regards Alice rice beer who is surprisingly fair (Cooper, 1984 p.378) and Chingachgook who is an simple Mohican. Contrary to these characters, Cora, the elder sister of Alice, is of mixed race, and it is she who protects her sister at the cost of her life. Belonging to the race of West Indians, Cora fuck offs from that regrettable class who argon so basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a riotous people (Cooper, 1984 p.310), and thus, she is forecloseed to draw a person from the South.In this regard, miscegenation was treated as blameworthy in those times, and when Magua proposes Cora t o follow him, she claims that the thought itself is worse than a thousand deaths (Cooper, 1984 p.124). These words prove that only Uncas and Chingachgook atomic number 18 presented as noble people, bit all other Native Americans are regarded as cruel savages. Thats why miscegenation between a white person and an Indian was astray restricted. Although Catharine Sedgwicks Hope Leslie overly reveals this restriction, she points at the possibility of miscegenation between some secondary characters. Contrary to Cooper, the writer provides a rather humane vision of Native Americans. Faith, the sister of Leslie Hope, manages to marry Oneco, the brother of a Pequoud princess Magawisca. According to Leland Person (1985), Sedgwick belongs to those American female authors who in their novels reflect how an Indian male, reverential and loving rather than possessive and authoritarian, offers a romantic contrast to the arbitrary authority of Puritan caller (p.683).This can be as well as t rue in regard to Coopers narration, where the writer introduces such Indian character as Uncas with noble features and attractiveness. However, similar to Magawisca who is non able to become a wife of Everell and instead she has to regard him as her brother (Sedgwick, 1987 p.30), Uncas is also forbidden to marry Cora. Due to serious racial prejudices, Magawisca is an contrasted match to Everell, temporary hookup Hope Leslie suits for the location of Everells wife. By the end of the narration the writer shows that any wedding should be based on bash, as Magawisca claims, Ye need not the lesson, ye will to for each one one be to the other a full waterway of happiness. May it be fed from the fountain of do it, and grow broader and deeper through all the passage of life (Sedgwick, 1987 p.333).Thus, the writer proves that some Native Americans possess acknowledgeledge and nobility however, they are not able to unite with European Americans. Magawisca is spurned by both soci eties, as Wardrop (1997) claims, from the white for her association by blood with savages and from the Pequod for her association with the whites that leads her to rescue Everell (p.64). Magawisca saves the person she loves at the cost of her make rejection and isolation, only she is not able to marry him. Similar to Sedgwicks women, female characters of Cooper are divided into those who can be married and those who cannot (Baym, 1992 p.20).In this regard, racial and heathen differences are aggravated by gender stereotypes that put women in dependent positions and make them act in accordance with the existing social and moral norms. On the example of their female characters Sedgwick and Cooper reveal that women are prohibited any freedom and equality, especially concerning their choice of marital partners. Those women, who opt to repel racial prejudices and assigned roles, are either rejected by society or recrudesce.This is especially true in regard to Magawisca and Cora who try to act, gibe to their moral values, but their attempts result in negative consequences for both women. But, supra all, these women are appreciated for their racial characteristics. Alices racial purity is explained by her unadulterated unmixed blood, patch Cora, being a daughter of a Creole woman and a British soldier, is regarded as sinful. Implicitly opposing to miscegenation, Cooper prefers to kill Uncas, Cora and Magua in order to prevent an unsuitable marriage.As Terence Martin (1992) states, Fenimore Cooper cannot conceive of a marriage between the daughter of Major Munro, no matter her background, and an Indian, no matter how noble (p.63). The writer eliminates these relations, thus revealing his support for minute, unmixed marriages. As a electric razor of miscegenation, Cora is unsuitable for both white and Indian worlds. According to Wardrop (1997), Earlier Indian romances seem to present the hero more often as one-half-blood, perhaps mitigating the taboo of mis cegenation somewhat by presenting a hero who is at least half white (p.73).But it is the character with unmixed blood that becomes popular in further romantic literature. Although Maria Sedgwick points at the possibility of miscegenation, she still considers it inappropriate in the majority of cases. Similar to Cora, Sedgwicks character Magawisca appears to be banished from both societies, but the writer presents a more sympathetic view of both Native Americans and women concentrateing more on the domestic and interpersonal than the martial issues (Wardrop, 1997 p.63).Cora and Magawisca are respectable and unusual women with many virtues however, they suffer as a result of their parents miscegenation. According to John McWilliams (1995), Cora is one of those characters who show us both the limitations of societys racial and gender boundaries and the d individual retirement accounts of stepping all over them (p.74). Cooper considers that Coras marriage to Uncas would be a threat to the existence of both societies, therefore the writer appears to take on believed in the purity of the races (Barker Sabin, 1995, p.21).Their deaths are presented by Cooper as the only possible outcome, because it is better for them to die than to be rejected by their own societies. As Barker (1993) reveals, in this novel the twin deaths of Uncas and Cora prevent the reality of interracial sex with the disappearance of the Mohicans (p.27). Applying to these characters, Cooper points at the fact that miscegenation between White Americans and Native Americans is impossible, until the indigenous population stick bys to the ethnical and social norms of the colonizers and destroys their polish.On the other hand, the writer suggests that Cora and Uncas will be connected with each other after death, while Hawkeye opposes to this view by claiming that the spirit of the paleface has no need of food or raiment their gifts being according to the heaven of their colour (Cooper, 1984 p. 346). Contrary to some other characters, Hawkeye rises against miscegenation and considers that there is no ideal bond of joint (Cooper, 1984 p.348) that would result in mutual cooperation between different races.The marriage of Alice and Duncan, persons with pure blood, symbolises the subsequent spread of unmixed marriages, while the death of Uncas, the last of the Mohicans, reveals the gradatory disappearance of Native Americans and the power of civilised society. As sagamore Tamenund claims at the end of the narration, The pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red-men has not yet come again (Cooper, 1984 p.350).The inability of Cora and Uncas to marry because of racial prejudices points at moral tumult of American population. Their deaths reveal that miscegenation is considered wrong by both white people and Indians, resulting in the impossibility to achieve peace and mutual support. However, love between Uncas and Cora shows that racial prejudices are able to separate people, but they are unable to eliminate powerful feelings. The same regards Everell and Magawisca who experience certain attraction to each other, but who realise that their desires should be eliminated because of cultural and racial differences.Therefore, Sedgwick reveals that elaborations operate on peoples sleep togethers, depriving them of the possibility to hold fast their own paths, because cultivation is connected with both snobby and public spheres. As a result, both Cooper and Sedgwick discuss miscegenation through political and social contexts, pointing at the fact that the relations between devil races are considerably complicated by the occurred events and the put ined standards.As a result, such character as Hawkeye opposes to both races, claiming that to me every native, who speaks a foreign tongue, is accounted an enemy, though he may pretend to serve the king (Cooper, 1984 p.50). He doesnt belong to either society and he doesnt believe in the pos sibility of miscegenation.To some extent, such viewpoint can be explained by the fact that when a person of one race integrates with a person of other race, he/she takes part in either assimilation or acculturation. However, in many cases miscegenation is mainly based on sexual mixture between people of different races, but not on cultural mixture. As a result, people are rejected by their own society and are not received by other society. This is just the case with Cora and Magawisca who are not allowed to be engaged in sexual relations with males of different races, because their cultures prevent them from the mixture with each other. both(prenominal) Sedgwick and Cooper demonstrate that the existing stereotypes reflect the ideas of cultural purity that are closely connected with racial purity. Such vision is rather paradoxical, because even the purest race is certainly a mixture race, but White Americans prefer to ignore this particular fact, making constant attempts to achiev e dominance over Native Americans. In this regard, it is easier to infer Sedgwicks and Coopers attitude towards miscegenation.Cora, as a child of two races, is considered less pure in comparison with Alice, because Cora is an embodiment of two bloods and two cultures, and it is this particular mixture that White Americans tried to prevent. They did not want to be assimilated with another culture, because in that case they would lose their dominant position over the indigenous population. In addition, such attitude was considerable shaped by political ideologies of those times opposing to miscegenation, American rulers tried to prohibit any social changes within the country and simultaneously they utilized racial tensions and conflicts for their own benefits.It is obvious that miscegenation was a threat to the existence of white supremacy, because it eliminated specifically inspired differences between two races. The attitude towards miscegenation was also aggravated by the fact tha t it provided people of mixing blood with those features that were prohibited by American society. Cora greatly differs from her half-sister Alice Cora is more powerful and independent than Alice. The same concerns Magawisca, a rather strong and wise female who takes her own decisions, which are consistent with her moral values.In this regard, women began to occupy an equal position with men or were even superior to them, and such changes couldnt be easily pass judgmented in the patriarchal world. hybridisation allowed women to reveal their sexual desires towards males of another race and become more independent however, natural instincts were a norm only for men, while women were not considered to experience powerful sexual desires. It was thought affected for a white woman to feel compassion or love towards an Indian or a black person, and vice versa.Despite the fact that Cora is a half-Indian, she is brought up among people of white culture, thus she is prohibited to marry an I ndian Uncas. Magawisca is also deprived of the opportunity to marry Everell, as Sedgwick points out that love relations between Magawisca and Everall are impossible and unnatural because of their cultural and racial differences, while the relations between Hope Leslie and Everall are natural. Miscegenation reflects the mixture of two races, of two cultures, one of which is the culture of the colonizer and another is the culture of the indigene.Thus, miscegenation was especially connected with female sexuality that was widely controlled by the state to prevent undesirable inheritance. However, women who couldnt achieve equal positions with men in political and social spheres began to readily support miscegenation. But in their novels Cooper and Sedgwick reveal that their attempts are vain almost all female characters that interact with people of different races lose at the end. Many females mute people of other races, because their positions were similar women, like Indians and blac k people, were regarded as subscript to men and they usually experienced suppression and humiliation.For women, miscegenation was the way to destroy subjugation and overcome social stereotypes. Although Magawisca is prohibited to marry Everall, her attraction towards him helps Magawisca to visit many important things and save this character at the cost of her own reputation. Cora prefers to die rather than marry a person whom she abhors. But notwithstanding such courage and independence, these female characters continue to experience social and cultural pressure that deprives them of the opportunity to choose their own path. However, the state of affairs is different in regard to Alice, who not only survives at the end of the narration, but she is also going to marry Duncan and create another family with pure blood. The same regards Everall and Hope Leslie who finally unite with each other.Although initially Hope brings it difficult to accept a marriage of her sister Faith with a person of a different race, because she doesnt believe that Faith loves Oneco, she soon realises her mistake and agrees with her sisters choice of a marriage partner. In fact, Hope Leslie is a female character who rejects the existing social, cultural and religious norms and who is constantly blamed for her lack of passiveness, that, next to godliness, is a womans best virtue (Sedgwick, 1987 p.153). People with whom Hope Leslie interacts are not able to understand her independence, including Everell.As one female character tells Hope, you do allow yourself too much liberty of thought and word you certainly know that we owe implicit deference to our elders and superiors we ought to be guided by their advice, and governed by their authority (Sedgwick, 1987 p.180). However, Hope proves to be the best Christian who is able to follow her heart, even if she has to reject some religious principles to save her family and friends. Destroying certain social norms, Magawisca and Hope simult aneously ignore oversimplified assumptions in regard to people of different race.As McWilliams (1995) puts it, white culture was regarded as civilized in those times, while the culture of Native Americans was considered as savage (52-53). Thus, according to this particular viewpoint, two cultures could hardly successfully interact with each other. However, Sedgwick rises against this stereotypic vision. Close relations between Magawisca and Hope, women of different races and cultures, point at the possibility of one culture to exist with another culture. Despite the fact that Magawiscas race and religious belief differ from her own beliefs and culture, Hope is unaffected by the existing stereotypes of the seventeenth century and is able to overcome them, if she has to do so for the sake of her family. But the writer reveals that Hope still finds it difficult to interact with other Indians.The situation is different with Hopes sister Faith who is captured by indigenous people and is brought up with them. As a result, she marries an Indian Oneco and becomes greatly involved in the Indian culture. In this regard, miscegenation of these secondary characters is rather successful, because Faith changes her white culture and Christian religion into Indian culture and Catholic religion. She rejects her people and decides to live with Indians. However, other characters of the novel refuse to accept another culture and strongly oppose to miscegenation.Mrs. Grafton represents a stereotypic female who acts precisely, according to the established social norms, and who avoids any interactions with different races. For her, miscegenation is unnatural and wrong. Esther Downing is obsessed with her religion and is very subordinate to males, but she rightfully considers that marriage is not subjective to the contentment, the dignity, or the happiness of a woman (Sedgwick, 1987 p.371). Similar to Mrs. Grafton, Esther avoids any contacts with people of different races and she m eets Magawisca only when she attempts to convert this Indian female into Christianity.Esther opposes to any race mixture and doesnt believe that two different cultures can exist together. confrontation to these docile female characters, Magawisca is presented as a woman that rises against any cultural and racial prejudices of the seventeenth century. She possesses many virtues and tries to achieve equal position with males. Although Magawisca realises that miscegenation and racial relations are rejected by white people, she reveals obedience to some members of white culture. Nelema is another female character who, despite her anger towards the Puritans, provides help to Cradock at the cost of her life. Unlike other characters, Everell manages to maintain trustworthy relations with both Indians and his own people, but he is especially attached to Magawisca.Though they belong to different cultures, they are very close to each other, because they ignore their racial differences. Un fortunately, miscegenation between these characters is still impossible because of the social pressure and the existing stereotypes that prevail in their societies. In Sedgwicks Hope Leslie miscegenation appears to be a powerful obstacle for the characters. Throughout the narration Everell interacts with 3 women Hope Leslie, Magawisca and Esther. Two of them are white, and the third woman is an Indian princess.Although Hope and Magawisca are similar in their views and values, although Magawisca saves Everell and is admired by this white male, Everell chooses Hope Leslie as his wife, being unable to perceive Magawisca as an appropriate marriage partner. Everells nature rejects her despite admiration and desires, he is not able to establish close relations with a woman of a different race. As he claims, I might have loved her might have forgotten that nature had put barriers between us (Sedgwick, 1987 p.214). However, Everell is not able to overcome his own prejudices towards a per son of another culture these prejudices are too powerful and they continue to implicitly create barriers between Everell and Magawisca.Thus, racial mixture in Sedgwicks narration greatly depends on the possibility or impossibility of people to destroy the natural barriers. According to Person (1985), for a person who is brought up in a civilized society, it is rather difficult, even impossible, to get accustomed to the uncivilized culture of Indians, and vice versa (pp.680-682). In this regard, biological differences are not as important as cultural differences. Although Cora is half-Indian and Uncas is Indian, they are brought in different cultural environments and they are not able to marry because of these differences.Despite the fact that Hope and Faith are sisters and belong to one race, they appear to be separated by various conditions of their upbringing. The same concerns Magawisca and Everell who understand that their marriage is impossible. The marriage between Everell and Hope or Alice and Duncan is considered normal, because in these relations the characters are equal to each other. However, there is a great difference between the relations of these two pairs of white people.In the case of Alice and Duncan, the characters adhere to the traditional federal agency of a family, where a wife is inferior to her husband, while in the case of Hope and Everell, their union is based on the principles of equality and freedom. On the other hand, both pairs are culturally identical to each other, while miscegenation was considered as a sexual mixture of two people with different cultures. It was thought that it was impossible to create a strong family only on sexual relations in those times cultural and religious similarities were regarded more crucial for a normal family than sex.As Calloway (1987) claims, any mixed relations were exposed to the threat of becoming degenerated (p.117). And children who appeared as a result of such relations couldnt live in th e world of white people. However, if a person of different race agreed to convert to Christianity, a marriage between a white person and an Indian could be reliable by American society. Under these complex conditions, such characters as Magawisca and Everell, Cora and Uncas understand that their relations with each other will fail as soon as they interact with the rest of the world.ConclusionAnalysing the issue of miscegenation through the characters of James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the Mohicans and Catharine Maria Sedgwicks Hope Leslie, the dissertation compares and contrasts the representation of racial relations between Native Americans and European Americans. Although both writers oppose to miscegenation in their novels and maintain the idea of racial purity, Sedgwick mentions the possibility of relations between white people and Indians on the example of her secondary characters.Such rejection of miscegenation responds to the existing social and cultural standards that in spired inequality between the indigenous population and European colonizers, depriving both races of freedom. Dividing their characters on mixed and unmixed people, Cooper and Sedgwick reveal that persons with pure blood were more easily accepted by American society, and thus had more possibilities to survive. However, persons with mixed blood couldnt find their places either in the world of white people or in the world of Native Americans.Such attitude can be explained by the wish of White Americans to control people of other races and prevent any social changes, while miscegenation erased any differences between two races, victorious away their power and superiority. As racial relations were closely connected with gender issues in those times, miscegenation could provide females with freedom that they were deprived of. As White Americans wanted the indigenous population to conform to their own culture and religion, they were not allowed white females to be involved in sexual rela tions with the Native Americans, applying to different measures to prevent miscegenation.BibliographyBarker, M. (1993) First and Last Mohicans. Sight and strait 3.8, 26-29. Barker, M. and Sabin, R. (1995) The Lasting of the Mohicans score of an American Myth. Jackson, University Press of Mississippi. Baym, N. (1992) Feminism and American literary History. rude(a) Brunswick, Rutgers University Press. Calloway, C. G. (1987) Crown and Calumet British Indian Relations, 1783-1815. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press. Clark, R. (1984) History and Myth in American Fiction, 1823-52. radical York, St. Martins Press. Cooper, J. F. (1984) The Last of the Mohicans. 1826. 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