One of Hawkeye's most insistent assertions is that he is "a man without a cross." Why is being "pure-blooded" so important to him? Research the history of racial anxiety in early America why was "miscegenation" considered such a threat1?

Uncas and Major Heyward are both solitary men who fall in love with the Munro daughters. What do they have in common? How are they different7 Consider the characters of both men as they are revealed by the different sisters with whom they fall in love.

Consider the character of the itinerant singing master, David Gamut. What archetype of early American culture does he symbolize? Look at his character in light of Washington Irving's hero, Ichabod Crane. How is Cooper's Gamut a reworking of Crane1? What does this reworking achieve?

The Last of the Mohicans is often seen as a tribute to the...