The Last of the Mohicans Study Guide

The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

The Last of the Mohicans takes place during the French and Indian War. Alice and Cora, the daughters of a British commander, become entangled the traitorous Huron Magua, the scout Natty Bumppo (alias Hawkeye), and Hawkeye's two Mohican companions, Chingachgook and Uncas. The story follows the drama of the French and British fighting, as well as the personal drama that occurs between Cora, Uncas, and Magua. Love, nature, and romanticism are heavily explored in the novel.

The Last of the Mohicans Characters

Table of Contents
  • Magua (ma-gwah)– the villain: a Huron chief driven from his tribe for drunkenness; known as Le Renard Subtil ("Sly Fox.").
  • Chingachgook (usually pronounced chin-GATCH-gook): last chief of the Mohican tribe, escort to the Munro sisters, father to Uncas. His name was a Unami Delaware word meaning "Big Snake."
  • Uncas– the son of Chingachgook and the eponymous "Last of the Mohicans" (meaning the last pure-blooded Mohican). He is also known as "Le Cerf Agile", the Bounding Elk.
  • Nathaniel Bumppo/Hawk-eye: Oeil de Faucon; 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.
  • Cora Munro: a dark-haired daughter of Colonel Munro; serious, intelligent, and calm in the face of danger. Her mother, whom Munro met and married in the West Indies, was a mulatto or mixed-race woman, described as "descended, remotely" from slaves. Scholars have sometimes termed Cora a quadroon, but Cooper may have imagined her with even less African ancestry. Diane Roberts described Cora as "the first tragic mulatta in American literature." Cora's mother died when she was young.
  • Alice Munro: Cora's blonde half-sister; cheerful, playful, frail, and charming. She is the daughter of Alice Graham, Munro's second wife.
  • Colonel Munro: 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), known as "the singing master."
  • General Daniel Webb– Colonel Munro's commanding officer, who takes command at Fort Edward.
  • General Marquis de Montcalm– the French commander-in-chief, called by the Huron and other Indian allies of the French as "The great white father of the Canadas."
  • Tamenund– An ancient, wise, and revered Delaware (Lenape) sage, who has outlived three generations of warriors.

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