Last Of The Mohicins Why Alice Jumped
Submitted by Rearmor on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: History Other
- Words: 485
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Last Of The Mohicins Why Alice Jumped
Last of the Mohincans, the classic story of sacrifice, revenge, hope and love, exemplifies the harsh realities of the French and Indian War in early American history. Alice, a young, pure adolescent from a wealthy family, suffers a series of traumatic events during the war, resulting in her eventual suicide. Alice's suicide was caused by her desire to die with dignity, her fear of a worse punishment than death, and the final realization that she could never return to her previous unadulterated life after experiencing such disturbances.
Once Alice released herself from her capturers, and prepared to jump, Magua offered her a hand and persuaded her not too. Although seemingly nice at the moment, Magua epitomizes the evil and hate of the war. Alice, knowing that he had killed her father and realizing that he was a main cause of strife between tribes, refused his offer. She saw taking his hand as taking the hand of the devil; instead, she kept her dignity and pride and sacrificed her life in order to defeat Magua and the Devil that he represented in her mind.
Alice also understood that the nature of Magua could never be reversed, no matter how genuine his outreach towards her seemed. Alice came to the realization that she would not be saved but rather face a punishment worse than death: rape. Alice had prided her self on her innocence and pureness and chooses to die with dignity rather than in shame.
Alice had never experienced or witnessed what she saw while with the Indians. She witnesses the rape of women, the murder of a family, the murder and scalping of her father, the torture of Duncan, along with the death of Uncus, whom she had an unspoken love for. Alice could never return to the innocent child that she was before, because she could not accept nor comprehend the dealings of war and the sacrifices that had to be made. Alice had been raised protected from evil, and as she stood on the mountain's cliff, decided that death was...
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