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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 #2a: Short Essay (Favorite Passage) |
LITR 4328 |
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Clark Omo
D.H. Lawrence on James Fenimore Cooper: The Mythic Reality
D.H.
Lawrence, in his critique of the foundational
Last of the Mohicans and the other
works by Cooper, identifies an essential aspect that is not only critical in the
forging of Cooper’s tales, but is also so in many, if not all, works of
literature from all genres. Lawrence so aptly observes of
The Last of the Mohicans that it
works “…as a wish-fulfilment vision,
a kind of yearning myth.” That is
probably the best way to label The Last
of the Mohicans. It is a myth, pure and simple and bare, but it is an
American myth: they are of a time
long past, where the values that made America “America” were at their most
potent, and of a man who lived and breathed those values through every thought,
action, and word. That is what
Hawkeye is. The embodiment of American values and culture. By creating this
myth, Cooper added another stone to the foundation of American Literature and
our standing as a single, distinct culture.
It is
a myth that, even after a hundred years, has lost neither its potency nor its
power in our studies of American Literature. If anything, the themes prevalent
in this myth are widespread in many other forms, incarnations, and realms of
literature and reality. This is true even in history. During our study of
The Last of the Mohicans, I could not
help but think of another infamous frontiersman who had both understanding and
conflicting relationships with the Indian and knew the mysteries of nature as
well as he knew the back of his own hand: Daniel Boone. Of course, another
figure that could be added to this relation is none other than the King of the
Wild Frontier himself, Davy Crockett. It can be seen that Cooper identified a
pattern in American behavior by his creation of Hawkeye (who I might add is not
the only American made character to bear that moniker). Lawrence, in response,
brought that pattern into the light with his observation that such creations are
“…presentations of a deep subjective desire, real in their way, and almost
prophetic.” They are indeed prophetic, for this tendency is prevalent and
constantly advancing in many cultures. Need I mention Odysseus (whom Lawrence
even compares Hawkeye to) blinding Polyphemus as did Hawkeye slay Magua? And of
course, if a man, a hundred years from now, were to talk to a passerby and
mention the myths of our present, would he not mention the Tales of James Bond,
the Victories of Luke Skywalker, the Adventures of Indiana Jones, and the Epic
of Frodo and the One Ring? No doubt he would. In their own way, each of these
tales reflect the same values that bore Hawkeye. They’re all “saint[s] with a
gun” (except, perhaps, for Frodo). They battle evils, both internal and
external, that threaten the very existence of their worlds and nations and at
the same time reflect morals that Americans admire and desire themselves to
exemplify. And since these heroes are all products of culture, they thereby
reflect the values of the said culture that forged them. Perhaps that is what
myth’s true purpose is: to reflect what makes a people a people. This is what
makes the myths “real in their own way” as Lawrence puts it, and Cooper, like
all good story tellers, simply solidified these truths in the form of Natty
Bumppo.
And
since each myth is created by a singular culture, a desire to make them must be
present. As is still true, America is competing with the world on many levels,
and back then our nation had another thing to establish in its struggle:
cultural identity. As Benjamin Franklin, portrayed in the 1972 musical
1776, says “We've spawned a new race
here... Rougher, simpler; more violent, more enterprising; less refined. We're a
new nationality. We require a new nation.” (“Quotes for Benjamin Franklin”
n.pg.) And so Cooper helped bring this purpose to its culmination by giving us a
set of tales and legends that express the values and the origins of our people
while simultaneously carving out America’s legacy in time. True, there is an
“unreality to this vision”, as all myths must possess for their purpose to
become fully manifest, but it is also a “wish fulfillment vision”, as Lawrence
says. That wish is for all the values and truths of the American Way and
personality to be brought to their purest form and immortalized. From here is
born the “yearning myth”: a myth that yearns for the values it expresses to
appear in as pure a form as Hawkeye, who embodies the rugged bravery and
ingenuity that permeated America. His myth, as all true myths do, speaks of a
time that is long gone, but whose notes still ring in our tales and stories and
will continue do so until the music is silenced.
I do
believe Lawrence hit the bull’s eye when he made this remark. The
Leatherstocking Tales are perhaps one
of the finest examples of the American Myth, a myth that bled itself into the
time of the American West, whose legends still play across our screens today.
Cooper set a definition when he wrote The
Last of the Mohicans. As to whether the accuracy of that definition is
impenetrable can be (and has been) torn and dismantled by the critics to come,
and undoubtedly will continue to be so until trumpets sound. In any way, the
myth has been made. Lawrence saw it. America still sees it.
