James Fenimore Cooper: A Painter in the Mind
James Fenimore Cooper is a writer who expertly is able to paint the setting of a scene in a manner that allows the world to breath with life around the characters, like a stage backdrop made from organic materials. Through his language, he is able to create vivid details within the mind of the reader that almost stimulates each of the five senses. Although his nature does not quite come alive as Washington Irving’s nature does, nature actually coming to the forefront and standing on stage alongside the other characters of the story, Cooper still is successful in creating a nature that is evocative and full of life. Through his language he is able to draw his reader into the setting, establishing the foundations of the scene in a beautiful manner, almost pulling back a curtain of intricate embroidery, before introducing the meat of the story in the form of the characters.
From Volume 1, Chapter 3 of “The Last of the Mohicans,” Cooper drops the reader right into the bowls of the forest, one that he describes as “[containing] such treacherous inmates” (485). Right off the bat, Cooper’s description of the forest is one that contains much more than the idea of mere vegetation and animals. His use of the word “inmates” implies that the forest is prison like, which in turn connotes a setting of oppression: oppression by the natural, of tightly interlaced trees that make escape a difficulty. Around prisons, there is also the idea of danger, but not just the danger of the harsh wilderness, but also danger from the “inmates” found within. The idea of the “inmates” is made more threatening because the forest is prisonlike, but not an actual prison, meaning the “inmates” have no guards and are able to come and go as they please.
After having set up the macro idea of the forest, Cooper focuses the lens on specific aspects. The “canopy of woods” is “vast” and overhangs the stream “shadowing its dark glassy current with a deeper hue” (486). Not only does Cooper paint an attractive picture, but the picture is also one that continues with the darker theme of the forest. Being “vast” the canopy is far reaching over the heads of the characters. The vastness is imposing in how the trees loom always overhead. For those within the forest, they know they are always within its bowels and at its mercy. The way the shadows darken the already dark current of the stream continues to build upon the dark imagery of the woods with the idea of shadows over darkness.
Although Cooper paints such a dark interior of the forest, he is able to bring a sense of pleasantness to the scene as well. Not entirely in darkness, there are rays of sunlight that are able to pierce through the canopy. Because of this, the darkness of the forest is not all encompassing. “The cooler vapours of the springs and fountains” and how they “[rise] above their leafy bed” brings an almost mystic sense to the scene, as the reader can almost picture these vapors (486). Out of a forest of danger and darkness, cooper is able to bring pleasantries to the scene that sprout beautifully in the reader’s mind, making them almost wish they could be within the scene in person, despite the danger lurking in the shadows.
