Holy crap, Cooper, write something that isn't awful! Can't? You're dead, you say? Too bad. Hopefully, Last of the Mohicans redeems him as a novelist. That being said, despite its TEDIOUS style, this novel does describe the ambiguity of the early American in terms of self-definition. Disparity between the city folk and the naturalist Indian-raised Natty Bumppo is clear. Are Americans European like their ancestors or something entirely different? I'm not sure Cooper really answers the questions he raises satisfactorily, but he offers some form of compromise that you may or may not accept by novel's end.