Hawkeyes character profile
Hawkeyes character profileNatty Bumppo is the main protagonist in James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. Natty Bumppo is a well known "palefaced" woodsmen among the Tribes and European armies throughout the colonial state of New York. Hawkeye, as his friends call him, is also known as The Scout and La Long Carabine by his enemies. He is extremely skilled with his rifle and has profuse knowledge of the wildness, but is still aspiring to reach the Indian plateau of oneness with nature. He and the Mohicans help a small British party navigate through the wilderness to deliver two daughters to a General at Forth William Henry, a few days journey from their starting point. Hawkeye is friends with the Mohicans, and finds himself at home among the intrinsic knowledge of nature that the Mohicans hold.
Hawkeye is a woodsman who is physically hardened by years of living in rough, rugged conditions, yet still is muscular and better advantaged bodily than disadvantaged. "…judging by such parts as were not concealed by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and exertion from his earliest youth. His person, though muscular, was rather attenuated than full; but every nerve and muscle appeared strung and indurated by unremitted exposure and toil." He has no cross in his heart, and does not believe in a Christian God proved when he shoots at the Huron Indians and bellows "Come on ye bloody-minded hellhounds! Ye meet a man without a cross. Bumppo is dressed in a divergent way, wearing an old frontiersman hunting shirt, which contrasts his natively fashioned moccasins, knife in a girdle of wampum, and buckskin leggings that laced at the side. His subconscious attentiveness gained by living in the wild causes his eyes to appear keen and dexterous, constantly scanning for any unknown object. Bumppo's mastery of his rifle "killdeer" has given him fame and infamy, due to his elite ability to shoot, and the sheer number of enemy tribesmen he has downed.
Hawkeye's friendship with the Mohicans is limited to the fact that only two remain; Chingachgook, and his son Uncas. This is somewhat of an advantage though, because it allows Bumppo to become closer to them. His deep friendship with them is first shown when they are freely conversing among the babbling creek and crashing waterfall, expressing different views and discussing the heritage of the Mohicans, they are at peace and enjoying themselves, before the British party shows up. After this point, the conversing done between Hawkeye and the Mohicans is primarily based upon decisions, which are made to better help the British party...
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