Last of the Mohicians
James Fennimore Cooper's The Last of The Mohicans was published in 1826, part of a pentology, but the best known work for contemporary readers. The story takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and Great Britain were at odds for dominance of the North American Colonies. During this war, the French made treaties and allied themselves with many Native American tribes to up the balance between the far more numerous British and colonialists. It was written in a popular genre of the time in which historical accuracy came second and numerous inaccuracies in terms of Native culture were simply overlooked, or became part of White popular culture (Peck). Ironically, there is a famous American author who took great pains to deride the material, Mark Twain. Twain found the novel lacking in variety with excessive verbiage, and even suggested that before praising the work, perhaps the critics and professors should have actually read the book (Twain).
Cooper wrote Last of the Mohicans during a time of burgeoning growth and struggle for national character in America. We must first put the story in the context of the historical and cultural aspects of America in the early 1820s -- sometimes referred to as the Jacksonian Era. The United States was moving from a climate of revolutionary fervor and realization of the vast task of self-rule, through a Jeffersonian period in which much of the political and social power gravitated from the northern capitals to the larger, rural estates of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern Regions. Jackson epitomized the idea of a land-baron; wealthy, intelligent, politically astute, patriotic, and ever expansionist. However, for the common person, this was an area of dualism -- the ever western expansion promised greater opportunity and a chance to build a new life,...
Silent films were caught in the cross-hairs of all this. Buster Keaton: Silent Film Visionary -- Too Much Imagination Yet, that sort of nightmare world of industrialization both inspired and was depicted in silent film. The Lumiere brothers were innovative geniuses who devised a portable camera, better equipped for transfer than Edison's bulky machine, and photographed technological marvels (like that train engine) to entertain audiences. One of the great comics of
Silent Film And How Critical Reception Shifts Over Time The objective of this study is to examine the film Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari or 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and to examine silent film and how critical reception shifts over time. The film Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari or 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" echoed the German psychological warfare that had been waged against the people by Hitler and throughout the
Silent Film: Robert Flaherty and Nanook of the North Robert Flaherty is one of the most renowned filmmakers of all time. He was born in 1883 and died in 1951, so that his life and work encompassed what is frequently referred to as the Golden Age of cinema. Although Flaherty was an American, he lived near the U.S./Canadian border, and went to Toronto for his schooling. His early work experience was
The first scene of The Great Train Robbery takes place inside the railroad telegraph office when two masked bandits are able to force the telegraph operator stop a train that is approaching the station so that they can climb aboard. After getting the telegraph operator to lie about a water stop, the next scene finds the train at the water tower by the station where the bandits will sneak onto
For approximately three quarters of the film it is without dialogue but, "It was for the clink of plates, the rattle of ice cubes, the sound of a man singing, of two people talking, that silent films died." (Eyman 76). The lively exuberance of Al Jolson was truly what made this film an instant classic and demanded the continuation of Warner Brothers and the talkies. For the first time,
Silent Film Melodrama, Race, and the Oppression of Missionary Idealism: "Broken Blossoms" (1919) and "The Color Purple" (1985) Both Steven Spielberg's rendition of Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple" and the 1919 silent film directed by D.W. Griffith entitled "Broken Blossoms" function as melodramas of racial misunderstandings. This silent film tells the story of an opium-addicted Chinese man who fosters an illegitimate Cockney waif, played by Lillian Gish. The young
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