Regaining Balance-An Analysis Of The Conflicting Thoughts Of The Characters In The Last Of The Mohicans From The Perspective Of Literary Darwinism

James Fenimore Cooper is one of the founders of American national literature. His work The Last of the Mohicans gives readers a vivid description of how the Mohicans go towards their doom. The novel has its everlasting value because readers in varies periods can get new inspiration from it.Taking the novel The Last of the Mohicans as the research object, this thesis makes an analysis of the characters in the novel with the theoretical framework of Literary Darwinism proposed by Joseph Carroll, an English professor in Missouri-St. Louis University. Under the influence of the multidisciplinary theories such as psychology and evolutionary theory, Literary Darwinism takes human nature as the key research object and attempts to reveal the essence of literature. By analyzing some conflicting thoughts of the characters in the novel with evolutionary theory and psychology, this thesis concludes that the biological human nature is always influenced by cultural human nature, and the tragic fate of the characters in the novel, to some extent, is due to the conflicts between these two human natures. Through the analysis of these conflicts, this thesis tries to find ways to settle the conflicts and regain balance between biological human nature and cultural human nature. Once the conflicts are settled, biological human nature and cultural human nature can regain balance, and the fates of the characters in the novel may be changed. It is hoped that this thesis can achieve a better understanding of The Last of the Mohicans and the characters in the novel.The thesis includes five parts. The first part introduces the author and his novel The Last of the Mohicans. It also presents the literature review and states the significance of this thesis. The second part presents the development and the main subject of literary Darwinism so as to construct a theoretical framework for the thesis. The third part mainly analyzes the three conflicting thoughts between biological human nature and cultural human nature, namely, parenting love and the sense of mission, love and racism, coalition and competition. The fourth part tries to find ways to settle the conflicts so as to regain balance between biological human nature and cultural human nature by analyzing the conflicting thoughts and the fate of the characters. The fifth part makes a conclusion of the whole thesis.