Matt Mayo

February 28, 2005

The Heroic Individual of American Romanticism

The heroic individual of American Romanticism transcends a common birth to achieve greatness: fighting valiantly for the innocent and serving as an instrumental agent of progress for his nation. These romantic characteristics of heroic individualism are evident in the prose of Thomas Jefferson, John Smith and Christopher Columbus, converging to personify Hawkeye, the main character in James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel, The Last of the Mohicans.

Hawkeye is a heroic individual who grew up without the niceties of economic privilege: “The frame of the white man…was like that of one who had known hardships and exertions from his earliest youth” (Cooper, 29). A native Englishman who immigrated to the British held American colonies, Hawkeye represents the hybridization of European and American ancestry and ideology. As Emily Islam stated, “The description of his body and his clothes gives an impression of a…fused background.” Hawkeye is the hardy romantic hero who gives identity to the people of a new nation, a character that “middle class audiences…can relate to or fantasize about being” (White).  

Colonial America was a fascinating and frightening wilderness, filled with incomprehensible savagery, in the minds of early settlers and European onlookers. The Last of the Mohicans allows the reader to experience this dangerous world vicariously while relishing the heroic deeds of Hawkeye, a “valiant knight of the forest.” Journeying through the colony of New York, still mostly untouched by Western hands, Cooper illustrates through description the experience of being the first to behold the wonders of a new land; Hawkeye leads his companions to Glenn’s Falls, “a spot devoted to seclusion…as they gazed upon its romantic, though not unappealing beauties” (49). Inspired by the wild beauty of the waterfall, Hawkeye articulates a transcendent parable, predicting the natural progression of America itself: “After the water has been suffered to have its will for a time, like a headstrong man, it is gathered together by the hand that made it…flowing on steadily towards the sea…as was foreordained” (55). Tinged with wisdom, Hawkeye’s romantic vision echoes the United States’ “Pledge of Allegiance”: “One Nation/ Under God.” Hawkeye revels in the majesty of the sublime wilderness, and ponders the will of Providence, subsequently concluding that this wondrous land is preordained to be molded and civilized by those of his ilk.

Columbus was the first European to claim the Americas for God, King and Country. Born into a humble family of wool workers, the young Columbus had grand dreams of sailing the seas and discovering new lands. Columbus’ vision was realized when he successfully completed his daring voyage across the Atlantic, reaching what he believed at first to be the Orient, in 1492. In Columbus’ “Letter to Luis Santangel Regarding the First Voyage,” one can envision his three ships-the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria-circling a wondrous chain of islands, the ‘first’ to behold the bountiful Caribbean. The claim of ownership is made exclusively for the Spanish crown: “And there I found very many islands…and of them all I have taken possession for their highness” (N 26). Columbus’ imaginative prose artistically describes the enormous potential for commerce and profit in this new land: “The island…is fertile to a limitless degree…there are in it many rivers, good and large” (26). By relating his discovery in Biblical fashion to his majesty of Spain, Columbus authored the “Genesis” of Anglican-American conquest, colonization and expansion in the North American Continent.

            About seventy-five years later John Smith was “born into a farmer’s family in Lincolnshire” (43). The young Smith desired to transcend his common lot, and dreamt of swashbuckling pirates and adventurous journeys. He left home early in life, quickly earning the reputation as a fierce, but valorous, mercenary (43). By the time Smith made his harrowing Atlantic crossing, to ultimately play a “crucial role in the establishment and continuance of…Jamestown,” his reputation as a leader was already well known amongst his associates (42-43).

Later in life, and back on English soil, Smith recounts his marvelous adventures in General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles: The Third Book. Within this work Smith describes his heroic efforts, which ensured the establishment and continuance of the Jamestown colony: “Smith, who by his own example, good words, and fair promises, set some to build houses…always bearing the greatest tasks for his own share…ho provided most of them lodgings, neglecting any for himself” (46). After erecting shelter for his companions, Smith journeys into Indian land to hunt game for the hungry settlement, near the Chickahominy River. While doing so, Smith is suddenly “beset with 200 savages” (48). Heroically withstanding the attack, Smith intuitively uses his fallen guide as a buckler, and miraculously survives “with no great hurt”, but alas, is captured by the Indians (48). Subsequently, Smith is brought unto counsel before the great Chief Powhatan, where his fate is to be decided. As Smith ponders what appear to be his final moments, “Powhatan…laid his head…to beat out his brains,” the hero’s Anglican allure proves irresistible to the chief’s beautiful young daughter, Pocahontas, who throws herself on the body of the white prisoner in a fit of passion, and “laid her own [head] upon his to save him from death” (51). Fortunately, due to his handsome manliness, and with a little help from divine Providence, Smith’s life is spared. The continuance of Jamestown is also ensured, because without Smith, it had fallen into anarchy; the inhabitants of which were ready to meekly pull up stakes and sail back to the friendlier confines of England. Enraptured by Smith’s heroic magnificence, Pocahontas subsequently continues to visit Jamestown and Smith, bringing with her bountiful surpluses of food, saving the colony from starvation: “Pocahontas…brought him so much provision that saved many of their lives” (52). By selflessly laboring for his companions to give them shelter, and bravely crossing into Indian lands to hunt their food, Smith’s heroic deeds ensure the continuation of Jamestown.

Hawkeye, like Smith, is not afraid to cross the boundary into the hostile realm of the Indian. When all seems lost-Alice and Uncas are imprisoned in the ignoble Magua’s village-Hawkeye enacts a particularly ingenuous means of chivalrous rescue. Duncan, who has also successfully entered the camp masquerading as a conjuror, but has yet to do much good, finally gains entry into the cave containing Alice, by offering aid to a village woman sickened by an “evil spirit” (Cooper 248-249). As an elder Indian leads Duncan towards the afflicted woman, a “shaggy…monster” ambles behind them in pursuit, and follows the two into the cave (252). This of course is Hawkeye, merging seamlessly with nature and transcending the limits of being human, engaging in a daring and chivalrous rescue. His ruse a success, Hawkeye waits to reveal his true self until he is alone with Duncan in the chamber containing the sick woman. Hawkeye explains how he managed to sneak up on a “famous conjurer of the tribe…dressing for some great battle with Satan” (257). Hawkeye knocks out the shaman, delivering a heroic “judgmental rap, over the head…and took the part of a bear myself [so] the operations might proceed” (257). Delighted by his own ingenuity, Hawkeye then resumes his disguise and hastily leads Duncan to the weary Alice. Almost immediately, Magua appears, and although not believing he beholds an actual bear, Le Subtil is feinted into the believing that the ‘bear’ is only a local conjuror. As Magua attempts to pass his supposed fellow tribesman, the mighty Hawkeye lashes out and envelops the villain with the “famed power of the “bear’s hug” itself” (262). Hawkeye does not kill Magua, but instead, takes the varlet out of combat honorably, “so he might be considered hors de combat” (262). Hawkeye’s chivalrously heroic rescue reveals his knack for overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, and shows his commitment to helping honorable allies.

Although born to “distinguished” parents, the pastoral acreage of Monticello lent to Jefferson’s lasting image as a common man. A true product of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, Jefferson pursued a “lifelong passion to liberate the human mind from tyranny, whether imposed by the state, the church or our own ignorance” (N 334). Upon entering the body politic of a restless colonial America as a young man, Jefferson’s skill as a rhetorician was already well established (335). Jefferson was appointed by a committee of America’s founding fathers to speak on behalf of the American people’s desire for liberty, which resulted in “The Declaration of Independence.” Jefferson’s eloquent verbiage wrought the transcendent words that inarguably comprise the most influential political manifesto ever created: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal” (337). A righteous vision of independence, individual rights and liberty erupts from the page, delivering a powerfully heroic vision of freedom.

Cooper’s character Hawkeye, and the archetypical hero witnessed in American Romantic literature, had a monumental effect on the 19^th century reader, “Middle-class citizens became the readership for Romantic literature that praised the rural world…Hawkeye is the figure that this audience can relate to or fantasize about being” (White). Although recently Cooper has received less attention in the literary world, his titanic character Hawkeye defies extinction and remains an enduring American icon: “This resourceful, sharp-shooting English frontiersman became a prototype for many other western heroes” (White). Cooper’s Hawkeye, as well as the three historic individuals aforementioned, present characterizations that young and old readers alike can identify with through their vibrant dreams of adventure, and their subsequent heroic accomplishments.

Like Columbus, Hawkeye is a surveyor of the wild unknown, blazing trails and embarking on ponderous adventures of discovery. As did Smith, Hawkeye endures impossible odds and crosses the boundaries between wilderness and civilization.  A precursor to the ideals presented in Jefferson’s transcendent “The Declaration of Independence,” Hawkeye’s own values are a template to be imitated by the citizens of a new nation. Hawkeye’s credos: chivalry, valor, honor and leadership, are the essential qualities that comprise the heroic individual of American Romanticism. It would be erroneous to claim that this man of common stock; this sharp-shooting gunslinger; this chivalrous rescuer; this stern arbiter of honor and justice called Hawkeye, was not, to quote Jefferson, engaging in “the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness” (337).