Fangyi Wang
English 101
How does Cooper Distinguish between “Civilized” and “Savage” Warfare? Do you think
this distinction make sense?
In the historical novel The Last of the Mohicans, the author James Fenimore Cooper described
the war between French and Indians and explored the civilization and savagery on both sides of
the war. The background of the war happened in the upper New York wilderness in 1757, and the
result of the war was that only one person of the Mohicans was left. The author vividly describes
the three forces stationed in North America: Britain, France, and Native Indians. In Cooper’s view,
all white-dominated wars are civilized, while all wars about Indians are savage. As far as I’m
concerned, I hold an opposite view from Cooper’s. In fact, the war exposed the whites’ atrocities
