Masculine Discrepancies on the Frontier: James Fenimore Cooper's Ideal American Man

The colonization of Native American people has consequently framed Native American society as heteronormative, despite the historical inaccuracies of such a notion. The relationships presented throughout this collection range from sexual, platonic, familial and interracial. Race is "a constant presence" (14) throughout the course of each narrative. Alexie 's stories question of identity as it relates to race and sexuality across a boad spectrum. The nine stories in The Toughest Indian in the World move off the reservation to Seattle or the nearby city of Spokane. The ‘urban Indians’ at the heart of these stories are educated, middle class and sober, and outwardly at least, they are fully integrated into the dominant white society. This paper will explore the trajectory of identity in Alexie 's work and how Toughest Indian demonstates a sense of otherness of Indians in an urban envirnment. This theme is expored through Alexie 's treatment of race and sexuality as demonstrated in two stories: Toughest Indian and John Wayne.

While women are confined to the homestead and are wired to remain subservient to their husbands, Wilson does not explicitly demonstrate male authority over women. Rather, he has aimed at depicting the complete opposite.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown illustrates vividly how society and culture can very much influence a person's sense of identity and belonging, or in the case of Young Goodman Brown the lack thereof. Being a Puritan man in a society that scorned the ways of witches and the devil, Young Goodman Brown grew up with a very pious outlook on life. Yet when it occurs to him to look at life a little bit differently, Young Goodman Brown receives more than he has bargained for. The journey he embarks on sheds a whole new light on his society that not only creates a struggle between himself and his fellow men but also one within himself.

A reader of The Last of the Mohicans is able to notice the manifested racism in the book which is perpetuated through the cultural divide and racial stereotypes. Racism from Cooper’s book depicts itself in being one of the contemporary themes in the novel which offers derogatory and stereotypical concerns to people of various races. In a more stringent analysis, the racial stereotypic statements from the book drive racial and cultural tolerance along with the societal inequalities which are set forth by Cooper. The author does not only use the stereotypes to further the racial barriers but also support and build the plot of the book promoting the idea that people from different racial and cultural upbringing can be divided on racial

However in the 1860s and 1870s a new concept of frontiersman arose. Dime novel authors presented these western men as strong, self-reliant, and upholders of the law. This idea of the frontiersman is presented in Owen Winter's novel, The Virginian. The Virginian is an American hero who is masculine and always ends up saving the day. This man is portrayed similar to a knight in shinning armor. He didn't care about material rewards as he fought for truth and justice. [not sure what to add here...]

Cooper and the American Wilderness – James Fenimore Cooper was the first great American novelist (The Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer) His novels “The Leatherstocking Tales” were a celebration of the American spirit and landscape

While both the “Invisible Man” and “The House of Mirth” were written near the same time frame, they were written in differing perspectives, reflecting not only social classes but also gender roles of the time period. At the time these books were written, men and women had very different roles in society. Women were in the midst of a long arduous battle of the women suffrage movement and as they gained ground in this fight the gender roles started to change along with the country: “Westward expansion also demanded that many women step outside prescribed gender roles and perform “men’s” work on the frontier” (Jolliffe 1). Men, on the other hand, had a battle of their own trying to defend their masculinity during the movement of women into new social ranks, “masculinity in the United States is certain only in its uncertainty; its stability and sense of well-being depend on a frantic drive to control its environment.” (Stryffeler 4) The struggles of this dynamic time period are expressed through the eyes of these two authors giving readers an idea of how women were viewed differently from men surrounding the gender and social issues that dominated history.

Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States is an intensive analysis of how assumptions about race, gender, and the perfection of civilization shaped thought and behavior in the US between 1890 and 1915. For its author, Gail Bederman, despite race and gender are two different categories, society have connected them so that they should be understood together. Both categories are connected in relevant to civilization as the social perfection idealized by Darwinism had designated white men as the most superior. During the particular period where this book is focused, male dominance has been prevalent long before this period. This book will investigate this turn of the century connection between manhood and race; and argue that as white middle-class men

Comparing Hope Leslie or Early Times in Massachusetts and The Scarlett Letter is interesting because at first glance both novels don’t appear to have much in common aside from having a female protagonist and taking place within Puritan society of early America. (keep but not as first sentence). However, despite obvious differences between both novels such as the character presentation of the female protagonists in Hope Leslie who range from the free-spirited Hope Leslie, obedient Puritan Esther, and character of Magawisca as a noble but proud Native American contrasts with the Hester Prynne’s presentation as a shamed but deeply contemplative woman in The Scarlett Letter. The different purposes all these characters each serve in their respective stories begins to show commonality in that Hope Leslie’s Hope, Esther, and Magawisca and The Scarlett Letter’s Hester Prynne all have to overcome the adversity and social expectations with Puritan society so they can follow their hearts and do what they feel is right by relying on their wit, intelligence, and inner strength. By examining how both Hope Leslie and Hester Prynne overcome the challenges they face in their respective Puritain socities it will be easier to observe how these novels presentation of their female protagonist illustrates the gender politics of each text.

discusses the image of the ''Macho mans'' as an ideal for the American people. Throughout his

David Gamut, a dynamic character, is introduced as a minor character. He is consistently described physically, as he does not seem to meet the expectations of a man. When the word man was first used, it was used to tease David. According to the narrator, “He had all the bones and joints as other men, without any of their proportions” (Cooper 7). He is a singing teacher from Connecticut and religious follower of Calvinism, joins the walk through the forest to visit Alice and Cora’s father.

Cooper challenges the assumption that white characters exhibit certain character traits simply because they' are white and Native Americans exhibit certain character traits simply because they are Native American. He does so by introducing the interracial friendship of Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas who have a very different racial history but look past race and develop a bond that saves other and leads to unification between whites and Indians. The novel’s setting is three years into the French and Indian War, and the struggle over the unfamiliar Native frontier brings about tensions between an expanding national culture and a diminishing Native American population (Cooper 13). Chingachgook and his son Uncas are the last of the Mohican tribe who have an uncommon friendship with a white man named Hawkeye. While Hawkeye may identify as white, he most closely associates himself with the Indians, he is a

respect is as much a part of a man as is his own image. This leads to

In The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, historical romance is apparent through settings, characters and plots. Cooper is considered by many critics to be the father of the American historical romance. Fred Lewis Patee said, 'Not only was Cooper the pioneer (of the historical romance) in America, and thus worthy of the highest praise, but in many respects his romances have never been surpassed.'; (212) Cooper celebrated the creative spirit of the individual and had a deep appreciation for nature. He was a romantic who enjoyed the mysteriousness and exoticness of the frontier. He favored the use of emotions over reason. Through his romantic writings, Cooper is able to captivate the reader and led them on journey through his

“The Last of the Mohicans” is a historical novel written by James Fennimore Cooper in 1826, depicting colonial America in 1757 amidst the bloody and long-drawn French and Indian War. The novel is an epic tale of war, loyalty, and the clashing of peoples from different backgrounds and races. Roughly 160 years later, the novel was adapted into a film which, despite the identical settings of the book and the movie, largely transforms the complex historical novel of a war amongst races into a saga of love, lust, and sacrifice through the oversimplification of the novel’s two female characters, Cora and Alice. Although, in the book, Cora is depicted as a fiery and mysterious Afro-Caribbean woman who lacks a love interest and dies heroically at the hands of the enemy, in the movie, Cora is reduced to a white woman whose character is centralized around the competing interests of two white men and appears destined for love. Ultimately, Cora’s character transformation from book to novel through her changed race, her exerted femininity, and her eventual romantic happy-ending demonstrates the serial reconstruction of strong, complex female characters as oversimplified vehicles for an audience-accepted romantic plotline and the centralization of male character dominance.