Monday, February 20, 2012

Clash of cultures

Discuss three examples of the clash between races or cultures. What do the three examples show about Cooper’s views on racism

9 comments:

  1. One example of clash between races or culture is the interracial love in the book. The author suggests that when there is intertwining of the races between white and Indian can be desirable and dangerous. Such relationships are frowned upon and regarded as unnatural. Magua’s desire for Cora, for example, is considered as horrible. These matters can become complicated such as
    that Cora herself has dark blood in her, since her mother was descended from slaves.
    Second, the friendship between Hawkeye and Chingachgook is that they share a common insight of nature and they can communicate to team up against the military leaders. The author Cooper expresses attitudes commonly held toward Indians that can complicate the friendships. He regularly refers to them as “savages.” Magua is described as cunning and crafty. Cunning and crafty are implied characteristics of the Indians. Hawkeye believes that revenge is an Indian pursuit, but Hawkeye also makes favorable comments about the Indian culture and can maintain a friendship.
    Third, the author Cooper did not only describe two cultures, but included many cultures. The reader is only seeing two cultures of whites and Indians. Cooper includes a variety of Indian tribes, the colonists and French and British imperialists. Cooper classified other races and seemed to put them in a ranking order of good to bad. There was use of words from the Indian people to describe the other races in the book. In using, the language there are different ideas presented for the reader to make judgments.

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  2. How is Alice different than Cora, heritage-wise? Why is this important? Is there a similar relationship in the native american "family" we see??

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    1. Cora’s complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared the color of the rich blood.The girls’ father, Colonel Munro, who accounts for the truth when he feels insulted by Major Heyward’s preference of Alice to Cora. Munro explains that when living in the West Indies, he formed ‘a connection with one who in time became [his] wife and the mother of Cora. She was the daughter of a gentleman of those isles, by a lady whose misfortune it was … to be descended remotely from that unfortunate class who are so basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people’.
      Cora’s mother, he admits, was partly black and passed on her racial impurity to her daughter. After the death of his first wife, the Colonel returned home to Scotland and remarried. He tells Heyward that his second wife, Alice’s mother, was ‘the only child of a neighboring laird of some estate’ and consequently makes clear that she was as racially pure, that is, white, as he himself is .

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    2. I really disliked how Munro looked at the differences of race with his own daughters. It made me feel bad for cora because I feel that she should be treated equal and that race shouldn't have been seen in his own offspring, Bad Munro, Bad.

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    3. This reminds me of the musical South Pacific? Has anyone seen it???

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  3. The two sisters, cora and Alice, are from differetn mothers. Munro mentions that the mother of Cora was from a darker heritage and if you look at her complicity in her manner that she always seems to want to serve as a a gaurdian for her sister, to serve her father, that kind of gives you hint before Munro tells you out right. That's not normally okay back then. When Duncan wants to marry Alice, Munro tells him he should marry Cora, which he declines to even think about. This tells you he dosen't want to mix race. Another example is when Magua wants to take Cora as his wife, this is another example of mixing blood and not only does it upset her but also her sister Alice states she would rather die then let that happen to her, they all are disgusted.

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  4. The clash of cultures is evident in the war between the Indians and French, the French and the British, and the clash of race between the differing mothers of Munro’s daughters and the repression of racial mixing between Indians and whites. This doesn’t necessarily prompt that Cooper is being racist but showcasing the racism that was common during that timeframe. It is indicated through movies, other stories, and generally known that Indians were repressed and if one were of Indian origin to any degree they were outcaste and disliked. Cooper explains in his story the differences between cultures and offers the reader a better understanding as to why they clashed, religion for instance being the primary reason. Indians did not believe in God but in Nature and believed all things in nature to be held sacred. The Indians loathed the French and Brits for being so careless and merciless in their homeland while the French and Brits viewed the Indians as savages due to their cultural customs, including scalping to their dress and mannerisms. The French and British loathed one another due to differing crowns, customs, and patriotic beliefs, and Munro’s daughters were treated differently because they were born from different mothers of different races.

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