The Opposing Views of Idealization and Demonization

            The opposing views of idealization and demonization of the Native Americans by early nineteenth century writers intensified the two polar views of Native Americans in society. With his written idealization of the Native Americans , a loose group of people embraced the spirituality of the Indian as a relief from the over barring society. Because the Indian's political and societal structure was foreign to the same individuals, they assumed that the Indian did not possess these structures, and therefore was not used by them. The Native American possessed the "freedom" that others were denied within the strict moral principles of civilization; the Indian became a metaphor for the individuals' desire. The demonizing writings of the Native Americans resulted in another bias that triumphed in terms of legislature and social policy was absorbed in violence and hatred for this threatening class of people who did not have any place in a quickly expanding European-based society. Guided by a broken Darwinian beliefs, these men took the differences of the Native Americans' from the standards of the European culture and established those as inferior characteristics that applied to every Native American. In other words, the lack of understanding fueled complicated social hierarchies; domineering Europeans classed Native Americans as lazy, and therefore forecasted various tribes as doomed to be destroyed by European progress and civilization. In this idea, the Native American was not a metaphor of desire, but rather one of fear. It is nineteenth century writers' depictions of Native Americans that substantiated the American"s contrasting views of the culture. James Fenimore Cooper idealized his American Indian characters to such a degree that they failed to resemble real Indians at all, however, Cooper demonized some of his Indian characters as well. In Last of the Mohicans, the representation of these extremes is noted in the characters of Chingachook and Uncas as idealized, and the Hurons and Magua as demonized.

Related Essays: