The meaning of the book’s motif is the mixture of separate elements into one whole. It applies to literature when the two cultures and races intermingle. Two examples of this is Cora and Hawkeye, as they are both hybrids. Cora’s mother is black and her father is white. Hawkeye is white by blood, but Indian by habit. Hawkeye is a very successful and masculine man who has the knowledge of both the European and Indian worlds. These two characters are perfect examples of both cultures and how having insight on the opposite culture is beneficial. Cooper uses the idea of mixing cultures to help support the novel’s theme of race and family. The novel states, “The pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red-men has not yet come again”
