Rob Baker’s Reviews > The Deerslayer > Status Update

A scene from this book has been copied many times in modern movies: Natty catches an ax mid-flight that has been thrown at him and hurls it back at the enemy :)

Every time we meet a character, Cooper reminds us of their main trait: Hetty is "simple-minded" but pure of soul, Judith likes material things and her own looks a bit too much, Deerslayer is honest and a woodsman, etc.

Really JFC, your reader can remember this after being told just once, or better, shown :)

Natty Bumppo, a.k.a., Deerslayer, is a memorable American Lit hero:

"'We understand you, Deerslayer,' returned Judith hastily, 'and take all that falls from your lips, as it is meant, in kindness and friendship. Would to heaven all men had tongues as true, and hearts as honest'" (350).

Engaging melodrama, though Cooper is really stretching out this microcosmic conflict, all taking place in a couple of days on and around a NY lake as the opposing sides alternately gain the advantage in their battle.

“He loved the woods for their freshness, their sublime solitudes, their vastness, and the impress that they everywhere bore of the divine hand of the Creator…and never did a day pass without his communing with the spirit, and this without the aid of forms or language” (250).

“Forts and churches almost always go together, and yet they’re downright contradictions…Hive me the string places of the wilderness, which is the trees, and the churches, which are the arbors raised by the hand of nature” (238).

Wisdom a la Natty Bumppo:

“When a man stoops to pick a wild strawberry, he does not expect to find a melon; and when he wishes to gather a melon, he’s disapp’inted if it proves to be a squash, though squashes be often brighter to the eye than melon. That’s it, and it means, stick to your gifts and your gifts will stick to you (190).

Copper has kept us curious about what’s in Hutter’s chest made of exotic wood! I think we’re about to find out!