American who art thou?

I realize lived to see the croak warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans laments Tamenund ( cooper 382) in the book prevail of the Mohicans. The death of Uncas and Cora marks the end of the Mohican stack. Chingachgook indeed outlived Uncas his son unless he is now childless and his people will now pass into allegory and song. Ironically, the people described by Cooper in his book ar Mohicans (Britanica). But their names rightly belong to another community know as the Mohegan (Britanica). The adventures of Uncas shed light on the true meaning of American.An American is a truly difficult to define creature. The US constitution defines asAll soulfulnesss born or naturalized in the unify States, and issue to the jurisdiction thereof, atomic number 18 citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall have got or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States nor shall any State deprive any pe rson of life, liberty, or property, without out-of-pocket process of law nor deny to any person indoors its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (Section 1)US citizenship, for those who be not born with it, is amazingly hard to acquire. however thousands of people from the third-world will try e very course of instruction to gain entry. America is believed to be the land of milk and honey. Millions more would campaign to enter if they only had the means. All seek the freedom and liberty promised by the Statute of Liberty to the Huddled masses.Those who are not Natural innate(p) American Citizens can aspire to receive visa to work in the States. If fortune smiles upon them they can be granted citizenship after proving themselves to be equitable law abiding people. This to a fault in tales absorbing American value and ethics although compared to other nations America has a high tolerance for those who issue out of the box and the non-con stochastic variableists.Media can often be used to honour or even create a new identity for a people. For example, Nazi propaganda transformed the innocent Jews into the demons who were behind all the ills of the world. The book last of the Mohicans and the painting last of the Dogmen are examples, of how media can be used to form a countrys sense of identity.In the movie net of the Dogmen, Lewis Gates pursues escaped convicts into the Montana countryside. All he rec everywheres are a few scraps of cloth, some blood and an aged(prenominal) fashioned Indian arrow. Despite the doubts of scientist, Gates believed that the there is a disordered Indian tribe somewhere out there. Working on a hunch the Indian arrow leads him down a trail of pursuit of a lost tribe of Dog Soldiers. He eventually encounters the Dog soldiers and they believe him to be their foe. Upon his escape he essays to protect them from being discovered and polluted by civilization.In the movie the American was defined as a homegrown American , one of the Dog Soldiers whose ancestors once roamed the plains of America free and untamed by todays mores. The noble savage is worthy of protection from the misdirect influence of mainstream society.By comparison the Last of the Mohicans is about a Mohican caught in the French-English war in Canada. The French are trying to overwhelm arm William Henry with the aid of the Hurons and the Iroquis. Hawkeye is condition the task of escorting the com opusders two daughters to safety by onetime(prenominal) the Indians. On the road they encounter Chingachgook and Uncas the last of the Mohicans in the region. The plot of Hawkeyes guide is currently exposed the guide betrays the company and the two Mohicans insure to be their guides.In the forest, Hawkeye, the Mohicans and their charges face many perils including many Indians who are tenacious the woods in search of them. nonpareil of the members of the group is wounded by a sniper and they are soon immobilized. The group hides in a countermine but a flushed out by a very much larger party of Hurons. Now prisoners of the Hurons they are granted a circumstances at freedom if Cora would but consider to marry Magua.Haughty Cora refuses and soon the enraged Magua decides that the entire party should just die. At that very moment, the Mohicans and Hawkeye ardor rescuing the captives and slaughtering the Hurons. Magua escapes but the captives are now safe. Eventually they stop at an old building where a lot of Mohicans died and where Chingachgook and Hawkeye fought together. Soon they are finally within the forts walls and are safe.In the fort, Duncan wonders how the fort can find out off so many attackers. Their only hope is for Webb to arrive with reinforcements. Duncan is move as an emissary to the French commander Montcalm. All this succeeds in doing is let Duncan know that the Frech are aware of the dire plight of the English Fort. The commanders, Montcalm and rice beer eventually meet and Montcalm hands Munro a letter lucubrate how Webb is unable to send reinforcement. He asks the English to surrender. Munro naturally abhors surrender, but upon hearing the generous terms offered by the Frenchman agrees to sign a treaty. relaxation it seems is achieved.But not all are pleased with the accord. Magua is indignant in claiming that his warriors will have no scalps while the white men fuck off friends. While the English are fleeing from Fort William Henry the Hurons attack kill many innocent people. Cora is found by Magua and again he asks for her to be his wife but again she refused. So Magua captures Alice instead.A bear bm goes horribly wrong when Duncan, Uncas and Hawkeye go to the Huron Village. Uncas is caught and is at the mercy of the Huron. This time the rescue goes well as Duncan is able to rescue Uncas. After a side-trip among the Delaware who are overjoyed at seeing Uncas, a Mohican. Uncas prepares his forces to attack the Hurons. In the contest that follows Magua is k illed, Cora is also killed but ere the battle is ended Uncas too dies.Oddly, enough Coopers view of Mohican Indian is wildly at variance with the movie version. Coopers Mohicans are musket carrying warrior who could fight equally well as the atomic number 63ans they traveled with. By comparison Wyeth portrays Uncas with a dagger, a tomahawk, and a give in and arrow-weapons of precolonial warfare and the customary attributes of an Indian brave. Coopers Uncas suggests the complexity of the characters em slurment as a conventionally educated, English-speaking American Indian, Wyeth generalizes and romanticizes the Indian heros appearance. Wyeths version simply conforms to his understanding of American Indians, which was tightly bound to the deification of an untamed wilderness.Hawkeye is the books consummate American, he is the friend of Chingchagook. In chapter three of the Indians struggle for identity is first given shape. He was of unmixed blood and his tribe is the grandfather of nations. In the past his people fought the Iroquis, who were now mercenaries at the employ of the French, However, now the tribe is gloomy and only Uncas his son remains of the Mohicans. Uncas and Chingchagook are firmly with the English as they are prepared to die fighting the Iroquis. Also in this chapter is the interplay of ideas and doctrines amidst Chingchagook and Hawkeye. This would later be an important ideal of Americans. The free exchange of ideas and belief or the so called Marketplace of ideas.another(prenominal) example of the struggle was the diversity Cora Munro suffered as opposed to the respect that Alice Munro received. Both were the daughters of a prominent military commander but because of Coras skin show and heritage she is looked down upon. Although later in the story she would fall in love with Uncas.An American is one who can identify with the values and moral philosophy of the American people in General. It is the question of what those values are that is problematic. One of the first defining events of being an American was Declaration of independence. As indite by Thomas Jefferson the American people believed that All men are created free and equal under God. Previous to the declaration, Americans were salve very much under the heel of the primitive feudal system they hereditary from the British. The King, three thousand miles away ruled their lives by fiat. His lords and nobles ran roughshod over his subjects. This same struggle for equality is seen when Chingchagook and Hawkeye are discussing the differences between the English and the Mohicans.Another related event was the Civil war. The ideal of free and equal was prescribe to the test. Till then it was a hypocrisy, the US claimed that its people lived in equality. Yet in the Southern States nearly 1/3 of all people were strivers who had no civil and political rights.The black man was a slave unfitting even of the title man, he toiled in the cotton plantations inte rminably providing wealth for the arrogant white masters. Tens of Thousands would die before the African-American could pullulate part and received citizenship in the country. An example, of this variety is when Cora rejects Maguas offer to be his wife. In exchange for the freedom of the thralls. Still Cora refuses because even if she was a Quadroon she still held herself better than the filthy Indian Magua.However, even with the Emancipation declaration, the black man was still relegated to a second class citizen. It was not until Martin Luther King junior came forth daring violence and persecution in order end the discrimination and bigotry that plagued African Americans in the south. The struggle for equality can also been seen in the desire of Magua to be wed to Cora where Cora constantly refuses him because of his inferior stock. In the past, there were laws in place, particularly in the south, which prevented a black person from marrying a white person.Manifest Destiny, tha t doctrine that said that America should din to the Pacific and beyond was another important even that helped change the American Identity. The Expansion to the west would come at the expense of Mexicans and Indians who would lose their lands. In that point of history a great influx of Irish, Germans and other European immigrants came to America to seek the freedom promised by the Statute of liberty. They were soon welded into the American people and brought their work ethic and industry to the increase the vigor of the rise Hercules that was the Union.The World Wars are another defining event in American History because the US having gained prominence among nations was now ready to take its place among the stars. America sent legions of its finest youths to go forth and fight in Europe and Asia for the defense of the weak and innocent against those who would oppress them. The same way Uncas was volition to endanger himself for the sake of foreigners he barely knew.The American i dentity remains vague and hard to define. Literature and other media can help press and expound it. But ultimately it must shine forth from the message of every American Citizen. Simply, put an American is one who lives and breathes the American ideals. In a sense Hawkeye was an American because he respected the views of those who were not in concurrence with his. He also fought hard for the protection of the weak and innocent. Finally, he was a true friend to his allies.Works CitedCooper, James The Last of the Mohicans. Edwards Brothers Inc 2006 EdMohican (history), Encyclopdia Britannica, 2007, webpage EB-Mohicans. (Last accessed 11 Dec 2007)Mohegan (history), Encyclopdia Britannica, 2007, webpage EB-Mahican. (Last accessed 11 Dec 2007)U.S. Constitution.Micheals, Joel B The Last of the Dogmen 8 Sept 1995WYETHS NOBLE SAVAGE Sep/Oct 2007. Vol. 28, Iss. 5 pg. 23, 1 pgs