Loading Likes... I find Alice and Cora’s identities and relationship fascinating in this book. Cooper seems to be both satisfying the sexist romance stereotypes of the time while also breaking them with these characters. In chapter 25, after Hawkeye tells Heyward where to find Alice, the romantic vignette Cooper writes of their interaction plays into conventional feminine stereotypes to almost a comical degree. Alice is described as “sought, pale, anxious, and terrified,” but of course, always “lovely,” while Heyward comes to her rescue and dotes on her trembling, weak existence. This convention of relationships having a strong, brave man and a weak and beautiful woman who relies on him entirely is disappointing, if not incredibly predictable. However, Cooper doesn’t just leave it there, because we have her sister, Cora, and her romantic escapades as a starkly contrasting situation. Cora is the opposite of being girlish and weak, and in fact she comes across as one of the most dependable and strong people in the novel. Her character seems to exist to defy the conventions that Cooper so blatantly conforms to in other places. This all is fascinating in reference to the ending, where Cora and Uncas die (somewhat heroically) together, seemingly immortalizing their unique relationship and leaving a lot to think about in terms of the race and gender themes in the book.