An Interpretation Of Cooper’s The Last Of The Mohicans From The Perspective Of Eco-criticism

James Fenimore Cooper is an important novelist in American literature.In the history of American literature,he is called "the father of American novels".He spent over thirty years writing more than thirty novels which contain history.Among his masterpieces,the most prominent one undoubtedly is The Leather Stocking Series.The five novels own a common hero,Natty Bumppo,a frontiersman.In these five novels,he was nicknamed respectively Leather Stocking,Hawkeye,La Longue Carabine,Pathfinder,Deerslayer.These characters share a common role,and they are full of shifts and devices and veteran woodsman.They fought with the white civilization and,according to the atrocity of the White in the battle,believed these white men would suffer from penalization according to the Old Testament.The Last of the Mohicans is the second work of Cooper’s five masterpieces,also the most outstanding one.In this work,Cooper tells us the battle between Indians and whites.He paid more attention to the merciless of the whites.They did everything they could do to murder Indians.Cooper named this novel The Last of the Mohicans that means a kind of sorrowful tune.At the end of this novel,the brave and righteous Mohican-Uncas and the kind-hearted and beautiful lady-Cora both died,which means the ending of virtue in the world.What people can view and feel was only the endless desire,atrocity and malevolence.During the battle,the natural environment was seriously destroyed,which sometimes played an effect part in their battle.It could provide covering for them that in turn safeguarded their lives.With the Indians killed one by one,the environment was ruined more and more seriously.This thesis analyses The Last of the Mohicans from the perspective view of eco-criticism,probing the ecological thoughts in this masterpiece.The whole thesis includes six chapters.The first chapter gives us an introduction that contains research background,the purpose and meaning of the thesis,the structure of this thesis,and the brief introduction of Cooper and The Last of the Mohicans.Chapter two contains the current studies at home and abroad.Chapter three gives a description of the eco-criticism,referring its derivation and development,its features and this thesis’ s theoretical basis.Chapter four focuses on the interpretation of The Last of the Mohicans from eco-criticism.It includes five Ideological Contents,conquering and governing nature;desire criticism;ecological responsibility;The holistic view of eco-criticism;returning to harmonious with nature.Chapter five comes to the practical meaning of this thesis.It will be introduced with some recent figures about the environmental problems,and through the eco-criticism perspective of this novel,it can make some difference on the modern natural problems.In the conclusion part,chapter six is the conclusion part.It states the contributions and the limitations of the study.