The Last Of The Mohicans Time Analysis

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Change is one of the strongest forces on Earth aside from time. The ability to change has set the creatures of this planet aside from any other in the known Universe. Behind the driving force of change lies a quiet little thing called time. In The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, change surrounds the story as the changing times and the end of many Native tribes dominance over this land when European settlers claimed the Natives land as their own. Louis L'amour's The Cherokee Trail, describes the women’s role in the West that is redefined by Mary Breydon who not only does everything a woman can do but most everything a man can do as well. The one thing these stories have in common is changes made over a length of time. Change …show more content…

Yet when it comes to the changes time makes in ourselves, we are reluctant to realize them. In Last of the Mohicans Fenimore portrays a way of life that is coming to an end. The characters in his book are not willing to see that until the end when all the changes time has made forces them to realize their way of life is over. The touching scene at the end, in which Hawkeye reaches out to comfort Chingachgook in his bereavement, and swear his continued friendship, suggests the possibility of intercultural understanding and cooperation after so many years of misunderstanding and diversity between the races. The tragic irony is that Chingachgook and Uncas, are the last of the Mohicans, symbolically represents the last of a dying Indian culture, including not only the Mohicans but all the Indian tribes. In The Cherokee Trail L’amour presents Mary’s changes in a way that suggests the west has a mind to change people for the better. Mary came to the west as a lady and over the time she has spent moving from her burnt plantation to the day she stood with everyone she cares for. “No, Mr. Collier A year ago, I might have done just that, but a lot has happened this past year, both before I came here and since” (L’amour 164). Mary is demonstrating a change in her that the West has made. A change that can never be undone. She is now a fighter and a true western woman who will fight to keep her family and friends safe. The amount of danger no longer matters. Time is a never ending change master always making changes and deciding what will be permanent and what changes that will be short term. Change over time has a way of being unpredictable and has a way of being good in some cases and bad in

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