Research Paper on:
Hawkeye Analysis in The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

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Fenimore Coopers classic early nineteenth-century text, The Last of the Mohicans, which is regarded as Americas first popular novel, was concerned with the effects of hybridity on its main protagonist,  Hawkeye. It is recommended that the student who is writing about this first consider the definition of hybridity, which is the mixing of two completely separate and distinct cultures,  which is in this instance Anglo-Saxon and Native American. Hawkeye was born and raised in a white mans world, but he has made the choice of embracing the Native  American way of life. This has enabled him to become one of the finest frontier scouts in upstate New York during the mid eighteenth-century, at the height of the  French and Indian War. His knowledge of Native American customs and practices enabled him to successfully guide stranded Americans who were in need of his services through the wilderness,  while at the same time serve as a diplomat and liaison whenever tempers flared and cultures clashed. When the British Colonel Munros party needed flee a French attack, Hawkeye  was there to provide them with direction and protection. He served as the bridge between European civilization and the considerably more barbaric Native-American society.  It was his hybrid nature that made Hawkeye somewhat of a cultural chameleon, but also made him a bit of an outsider because he could never  completely assimilate in either world. Unfortunately, this issue of hybridity was difficult for Cooper to authentically depict for he was acquainted with few Indians and had to rely heavily  upon "a Moravian missionarys account" of their behavior (The Classic Text: James Fenimore Cooper). According to educator Theresa Strouth Gaul, "Cooper was writing during a period which saw the