The Deerslayer Literary Elements

Adventure/Historical fiction

The setting of the story is explicitly delineated within the first few paragraphs of the novel by the narrator: “The incidents of this tale occurred between the years 1740 and 1745, when the settled portions of the colony of New York were confined to the four Atlantic counties, a narrow belt of country on each side of the Hudson, extending from its mouth to the falls near its head, and to a few advanced “neighborhoods” on the Mohawk and the Schoharie.”

Third-person narration that is generally observatory, but occasionally becomes philosophically intrusive by the author

The tone cumulatively attains a didactic effect as it becomes obviously the author is working out a moral ideology throughout the action of the narrative.

Protagonist: Natty Bumppo, the Deerslayer. Antagonists: Tom Hutter and Hurry Harry.

At the heart of this novel as with all the Leatherstocking Tales is the conflict between the settling of the wilderness by white European settlers at the expense of the lives and culture of the indigenous tribes—as well as the untamed geography—which existed there before the arrival of the Europeans.

Although an exciting battle told with vivid imagery occupies the attention of most of the latter chapters of the novel, the true climax occurs afterward when Judith makes plain her feelings for the Deerslayer to the point of taking on the dominant role of proposing that they join in the union of marriage. It is the Bumppo’s rejection of this offer which serves as the necessary climactic moment for this story—written out of chronological order—to seamlessly integrate into the timeline of Bumppo which is already known to those reading the stories in chronological order.

A conversation taking place at the beginning of Chapter Three quick transform into a disagreement between the Deerslayer and Hurry Harry over the relative humanity of white men versus Indians. The revelation of the chasm between the two men over this issue—Harry is basically a prototype for white supremacy while Natty Bumppo is far more progressive—foreshadows how the novel evolves to become an examination of precisely this divergence in opinion.

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The significance of the ark to the story is a detailed allusion to the Biblical story of Noah attempting to preserve the safety of his family in the ark following the flood.

“Muskrat Castle” plays a significant role in the story and is introduced with a detailed imagery so that the reader by the end can have little trouble in visualizing exactly what it was Cooper wanted them to see: “The chimney was not the least singular portion of the castle, as Hurry made his companion observe, while he explained the process by which it had been made. The material was a stiff clay, properly worked, which had been put together in a mould of sticks, and suffered to harden, a foot or two at a time, commencing at the bottom. When the entire chimney had thus been raised, and had been properly bound in with outward props, a brisk fire was kindled, and kept going until it was burned to something like a brick-red…There were a few other peculiarities about this dwelling, which will better appear in the course of the narrative.”

In his viciously satirical attack upon the work, Mark Twin points out a paradox in the characterization of the Deerslayer which he finds especially disturbing: “In the Deerslayer story he lets Deerslayer talk the showiest kind of book-talk sometimes, and at other times the basest of base dialects.”

Parallel construction is most intensely used in characterization to signify moral superiority. The Deerslayer and Hurry Harry are place in paralleled together most strongly to suggest the how the young Natty will grow into a morally superior example of the same type of wilderness adventurer. Meanwhile, the sibling relationship between Judith and Hetty sets the stage for a parallel to be drawn between them that also serves to parallel the relationship between Natty and Harry in terms of moral superiority not necessarily being connected to age, experience and wisdom.

The Deerslayer voices fundamental American views towards aristocratic inequality through synecdoche in which “King” represents the larger functioning body of governance: “When the colony's laws, or even the King's laws, run ag'in the laws of God, they get to be onlawful, and ought not to be obeyed.”

As he is present throughout the Leatherstocking Tales, Chingachgook becomes the personification of the philosophically racist trope of the “noble savage.”