American Exceptionalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: the Case of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the literary elements that represent American Exceptionalism of the 19th c literature in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. The setting, plot, and characters of the novel are coloured by a sense of American Exceptionalism, which motivated this research to rise three main questions: firstly, how does the author’s recreation of certain historical events in the novel meet American Exceptionalism? Then, how does the author’s portrayal of the setting reflect American Exceptionalism? , and how does characterization in the novel typically represent American exceptional identity? To answer those questions, this study will apply New Historicism theory so that to examine the role of the recreation of past events of the 3rd year of the French and Indian war in demonstrating the idea of American Exceptionalism of the 19th c literature. Turner’s frontier thesis will be also applied to describe the unique nature of the frontier in America, and how it contributes to the creation of the American character. Those methods play a significant role in accomplishing the three objectives of this research. The first objective is describing and analyzing the effects of the historical events in the plot on the establishment of America’s history. Secondly, it aims to describe the setting and to investigate its reflection on American Exceptionalism. The third objective is analyzing the character of the protagonist as the representative of the American identity. The examination of the plot displays that the fictionalized events of Fort William Henry Massacre and Uncas’s death meet American Exceptionalism, in which they successively foreshadow for the seeds of the American Revolution, Manifest Destiny, and the necessity of the Americans’ independence. The frontier also is depicted as an exceptional setting because it reflects both the harshness and beauty of nature. The latter also symbolizes freedom, heroism, and harmony between religion and nature, which render it a unique place. Likely, Hawkeye represents the typical American individual who is an exception because he is a fusion of the British race and the Achour VI Native Indians race. The latter provide Hawkeye with principles of heroism and justice, and teach him how to rely on nature to survive. The frontier also provides Hawkeye with sense of freedom, individuality and heroism.