In the final chapters of his novel, Cooper attempts to tie up loose ends not only of plot, but also of messages sent by Cooper himself through his characters and, presumably, to his readers. 

While the author naturally transmits his ideas and motifs through his characters and their various interactions, I could not help but draw a chief connection between Cooper and his, arguably, principal character: Hawkeye assumes the role of narrator in describing the landscapes at length and consistently “setting the scene” for his companions, as well as to the reader on an implicit level. Hawkeye appears to realize Cooper’s perception of himself as the author of this novel: A white man bridging the divide between the “civilized,” ignorant white Americans of his time and the mysterious, “savage” indigenous peoples. Cooper presumably views himself as a sort of intermediary, a “double agent” nobly giving voice to that misunderstood and overlooked “other” while maintaining his own authority and rapport with his fellow Americans by virtue of his own “pure white blood.” 

Of course, Hawkeye’s purpose evaporates in the absence of Cora, Magua, and Uncas. Cooper mobilizes these three characters as instruments for the forceful delivery and appeal of his ultimate attitudes regarding interracial interactions: Cora, as a mixed race woman, quite literally symbolizes the phenomenon in itself. Further, Cora, Magua, and Uncas’ fates seem to suggest the danger that lies inherently, according to Cooper, in the “mixing” of races — as well as the book’s broader conviction in the inevitability of Indigenous peoples’ extinction following their interactions with white people. Naturally, this notion proves nuanced in Cora’s strong character and mysterious, yet undeniable, beauty: While Cooper certainly determines the consequences of interracial procreation as destructive and “inevitably” fatal — as demonstrated by the tragic deaths of Cora and the two Indigenous men who dare engage with their attractions to her — one can only guess at the meaning of Cooper’s characterization of its very representation (Cora) as powerfully desirable. Perhaps the notion — in all of its perceived dangerous novelty and erotic — terrifies and fascinates him so that he cannot fathom its endurance in a world of his own limited awareness.