How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Her complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood, that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither coarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely regular, and dignified and surpassingly beautiful. (1.21)
How do you read this passage, given that we later learn Cora is part black? Is it complimentary? Derogatory? A mixture of both?
Quote #2
"There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red skin!" said the white man, shaking his head like one on whom such an appeal to his justice was not thrown away. (3.6)
Are Native Americans not supposed to have reason in The Last of the Mohicans? Where else in the book do we see Indians acting reasonably or unreasonably? Is there a pattern?
Quote #3
"I see nothing, nor do I hear the sounds of man or beast; 'tis strange that an Indian should understand white sounds better than a man who, his very enemies will own, has no cross in his blood, although he may have lived with the red skins long enough to be suspected!" (3.45)
Here it seems as though there are Indian attributes that even Hawkeye, who has lived among the Indians for a very long time, cannot access. These attributes are tied to race and genetics rather than culture.
Quote #4
"Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should," said Cora; "who that looks at this creature of nature, remembers the shade of his skin?"
A short and apparently an embarrassed silence succeeded this remark, which was interrupted by the scout calling to them, aloud, to enter. (6.6 -6.7)
Awkward! Cora says that it's possible to be blind to race (especially when you're looking at someone who is awesome and/or hawt). The rest of the group acts as though she's just burped her way through the ABCs at a fancy dinner party.
Quote #5
But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. (12.13)
Here Native Americans are shown to have a compulsion to scalp their enemies, and Uncas is celebrated for being able to resist this compulsion. This is super-backwards and buys into the idiotic and harmful stereotype that all Native Americans are hyper-violent and bloodthirsty.
Quote #6
There it was my lot to form a connection with one who in time became my wife, and the mother of Cora. She was the daughter of a gentleman of those isles, by a lady whose misfortune it was, if you will," said the old man, proudly, "to be descended, remotely, from that unfortunate class who are so basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people." (16.27)
How do you interpret this admission of Cora's African-American heritage? Why does Munro feel the need to be so oblique about it? And how does this play into the formation of Cora's character?
Quote #7
Then that success, which was already so well known, was officially announced; the favored band who were selected to guard the gates of the fort were detailed, and defiled before their chief; the signal of their approach was given, and all the usual preparations for a change of masters were ordered and executed directly under the guns of the contested works. (17.36)
This description of the fort's changeover from the English to the French depicts a well-ordered and civilized process. This sets the reader up for the contrast of the wild and savage bloodbath of the massacre, and supports the notion that the essential divisions in the novel are racial (white v. Native American) rather than national (French v. English).
Quote #8
The flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of a torrent; and as the natives became heated and maddened by the sight, many among them even kneeled to the earth, and drank freely, exultingly, hellishly, of the crimson tide. (17.70)
Here the Native Americans are portrayed as bloodthirsty savages—a recurring trend throughout the novel. Although, we would like to write some fanfic where these Native Americans are actually vampires and that's why they vant to drink ze blood, mwahahaha.
Quote #9
"Lord! Lord! That is now a white man's courage!" exclaimed the scout; "and like to many of his notions, not to be maintained by reason." (20.48)
White people are shown to be unreasonable and kind of wimpy, mainly because they have no idea how to survive in the wilderness. The trouble with this pronouncement is, even though it's insulting to white dudes like Heyworth, it underscores the idea of Native Americans as slightly magical and attuned to the earth… which is a historically very destructive stereotype because it implies an inability to survive in modern or urban settings.
Quote #10
"The soaring hawk is not more certain of the dove than I am this moment of you, did I choose to send a bullet to your heart! Why should I not? Why!—because the gifts of my color forbid it, and I might draw down evil on tender and innocent heads." (29.21)
Here Hawkeye equates restraint to being white, and he appears to be quite proud of the fact. Are there other "white" attributes Hawkeye is proud to claim?
Quote #11
"The Spirit that made men colored them differently," commenced the subtle Huron. "Some are blacker than the sluggish bear. These He said should be slaves; and He ordered them to work forever, like the beaver." (29.46)
Whoa, Magua. Way to buy into racism. Also, way to mix metaphors: if someone is colored like a "sluggish bear" why would they be ordered to work "like the beaver"? That's like saying "Hey, you're as pale as a swan. That's why you have to hunt like a stripey black-and-orange tiger." The wha-?
Quote #12
"To tell them this," he said, "would be to tell them that the snows come not in the winter, or that the sun shines fiercest when the trees are stripped of their leaves."
Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of the other's gratitude as he deemed most suited to the capacities of his listeners. (33.36-33.37)
Munro's words were actually not very different from the Delawares'. Hawkeye deliberately mistranslates the man's words because the idea of racial equality is abhorrent to him.