GEORGE OTIS

DATE: 10/3/06

TOPIC: “ROOTS VIBRATION”, EARLY AMERICAN TEXTS AND COOPER

Flamboyant as this title “root vibration” may seem, it is sourced from Diaspora literature and  means the original and natural essence of man. It also means that state of nature Emerson calls, “essence unchanged by man: space, the air, the river, the leaf,” [vegetation, mountains, man and the firmament].To my mind, it is that garden which is supposedly lost, which essence is everywhere to behold. The undying and undeniably palpable/cognitive and romantic spirit that pervades creation and persists in our being ness. I have picked this title because of its relevance to an aspect of the course objective 1(a) “the individual in nature.” Early American texts to be utilized for the discussion are Creation story series from the first book of Moses in the handout (ii) letter to Luis de Santangel regarding the first voyage (N.26-27), Selection from Genesis: John Smith (N42-53) and Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle (N.446-460).My approach will not be to discuss Cooper’s the last of the Mohicans at the tale end , but to see how the text moderates or extend romanticism themes of the early texts as the discussion flows.

The genesis story on creation will be the best place to start for it does indeed establish the “root” in nature. Also, according to Kristy Pawlak (in her 9/29/03 essay) it shows “evidence of God’s greatness” and enhances our perception of man, nature and God “in a sweet conjunction, majesty and meekness…” This Pawlaks article titled “The Changing Attitude towards God, Nature, and Man in American Romanticism,” has a handful of agreeable points to me. It asserts for instance that due to the Age of Reason, man’s cognitive/psychological attitude towards nature has suffered a distortion; with the result that man misapprehends nature and his divine role in the natural scheme of things. Now quotes from the Genesis story:

“9 And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so; 10 And God called the dry land earth; 11 And God said let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit; 20 And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion…over all earth.”

Now, what is the import of these extract? It is the fact that visible nature has a spiritual and moral side; consciousness of which enhances a holistic perception that affects man’s attitude and sense of harmony. Hence in Cooper’s Mohican story, the devastation of the human landscape through numerous  conflicts and killings would have been absent if the idea of man/nature /God cohesion was present.

A recondite awareness as mentioned above is demonstrated in Christopher Columbus’s letter to Luis de Santangel, regarding the first voyage. This depiction of the original state of Spain  shares a similarity with the virgin state of Genesis creation story: “trees of a thousand kinds and tall, and they seem to touch the sky…some of them were flowering , some bearing fruit, and some in another stage, according to their nature. And the nightingale was singing… and there are birds of many kinds and fruits in great diversity.” From the above picture, aspects of nature –vegetation has obeyed God’s directive in terms of function; by so doing, become according to Emerson, a beautiful “particle of God.” It is this beauty that is celebrated in the landscape paintings of great artists of the romantic era such as William Blake, and other British, French, Italian and American painters. In all, one sees that the natural depictions in their works have the capacity to inspire one to great heights of poetic and romantic sensibility. In Cooper’s case in his Mohican story, Magua illustrates God’s creative benevolence and man’s participation in the natural schemata thus: “…and these did he fashion to his own mind. He gave them the island as he made it, covered with trees, and filled with game.The wind made their clearings, the sun and rains ripened their fruit; and the snow came to tell them to be thankful” (301).To my mind, Cooper’s depiction brings nature to a functional state as we see the varied elements not isolated in themselves but becoming part of the original energy and spirit. Also cooper puts man at the center of nature just like God has ordered in the Genesis story that the anthropomorphic man should have dominion over the rest of creation. A dominion which I note does not mean destruction but an awareness of cohesion. For only then, could nature become very delightful. Emerson puts this phenomenon more succinctly, “the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man or in harmony of both” (N.448).This is the original romanticism goal. The status whereby man is able to proclaim: “the current of universal being circulates through me” (Emerson in N, 448).This is a sublime state of the natural goal. The frenzy of which is visible in the character of Cooper’s David in the Last of the Mohicans.  The frenzy of emotions as David mounts the stage and the sensation created in the mind of his audience shows how much cohesion there is in creation. Cooper describes this scenario as “The melody which no weakness could destroy gradually wrought its sweet influence on the senses of those who heard it;[causing] the sense to be forgotten.” Such transcendental impact of the melody is an inspiration to forget human limitations and aspire to a the knowledge of “the primitive sense of permanence of objects of nature” ,as Emerson puts it. This is more like a celebration of the oneness of our personality soul.

In John Smith’s narrative from “General history of Virginia, New England and the summer isles,” the romantic theme of harmony of creation is again enacted as captain smith  gives Opechananough, King of Pamunkey, a round ivory double compass dial. To my mind, this instrument is a powerful symbol of the unity and harmony in nature. “Like the jewel the roundness of the earth and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon and stars, and how the sun did chase the night roundabout the world and the sea, the diversity of nations, variety if complexion …” One major issue raise by this reference is the issue of unity in diversity is visible in Cooper’s Cora. In the Last of the Mohicans, she is Cooper’s grand voice. In chapter two, Cora retorts, “should we distrust the man, because his manners are not our manner; and that his skin is dark” in a different context Cooper demonstrates what he means by “distrust” as Unca and Heywood shake hands (75),thereby achieving what Emerson calls the universal soul. That original state in nature that is found in “Genesis,” which reflects the divine image, “the root,” the essential romantic deal.

In Irving’s rip Van winkle (p448) another dimension to the issue of root vibration or natural status is provoked as we observe a kaleidoscopic picture of nature’s temperament over the Kaatskil Mountains: “every change of season, change of weather…every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of the mountains. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but some times when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hue of gray vapors about their summits, which in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up a crown of glory”. The impact of the sun on vapor is an allegory of death; as Emerson puts it, every “natural fact is symbolic of a spiritual fact”. Also, there is no dirgy undertone because there is an awareness of a cyclic order. In relation to death; seemingly, nature is made to conspire with spirit to liberate man. In reference to the Last of the Mohicans, the philosophy of death is perceive from the natural view of the native Indians as Chingachgook scolds the mourners of Uncas, “why do my brothers mourn…why do my daughters weep! That a youngman has gone to the happy hunting ground! That a chief has filled his time with honor!”

By analysis all the writers agree that death is inevitable. In the Genesis story death is more in the concept of the loss of Eden. In Rip Van winkles narrative, death is symbolized  as a cyclic phenomenon; part of beauty in the great “circle of motion” as the reader/ respondent  pair of Marie le Blanc and Gwendolyn Darrel (sept;16,2000) puts it. In The last of the Mohicans death is treated with a great sense of romantic awe; delineating that death is an inevitable conduit for humanity to unify with the universal essence. Spinoza paints this natural phenomenon more succinctly “we are related members of a single divine body and a single divine [spirit]”Frost,1970,4).To cooper death is unification with the divine spirit; so, hardly calls for mourning but a feasting.

Finally, the earlier texts  and their convergence in the Last of the Mohicans, lies more in Cooper’s animation of natural phenomenon, through the depiction of nature’s functional relationship with man. Also while earlier texts such as the Genesis story or Irving’s narrative  passively symbolize death; Cooper interprets the actual sense of loss and realigns the emotions towards a more comprehensible romantic ideal; thereby rendering the concept a desirable phenomenon. Lastly, cooper’s depiction of the cohesion of man, nature and God , does not only promote the Romanticism course objective of “individual in nature,” but defines the individual as part of the “roots,” a “particle” of the holistic universal personality; and, the grandest particle at that.

                           WORKS CITED

Cooper, J.F. The last of the Mohicans. London: Penguin, 1986.   

Spinoza. “Ethics,” Master Works of philosophy 2vol.New York: McGraw, 1972.

Norton, W.B.The Norton anthology of American Literature.(6^th ed.)New York: Norton, 2003.