The Spy A Tale Of The Neutral Ground Chapter Summary

Summary: James Fenimoore Cooper begins his patriotic novel, The Spy, a Tale of the Neutral Ground, by first setting the scene for his book. During the American Revolution, after the British had captured the island of New York, a small county named Westchester had become a common ground. On this ground loyalist and patriots alike interact neutrally, at least they pretended to. Cooper first introduces the reader to Mr. Wharton, a rather wealthy man, and also a British loyalist. One evening, during a heavy storm, a stranger seeks shelter at Mr. Wharton’s home. Cooper goes into great detail to describe the man as a tall, tough, younger, simply dressed, and built to be a military leader. The man introduced himself to Wharton as Mr. Harper. Wharton …show more content…
Cooper adds many true and accurate details that make hard to tell where the fiction starts and stops. He accomplished this task by writing in people that really existed during that time, the places during that time period, and lastly he incorporated themes throughout the book that matched the ideas of that time in history.
His incorporation of the people who really existed during the time period proved to be very accurate, for example the character of Mr. Harper/ George Washington was described as a strong, dignified, and respectable natural born leader which was what we learned and cover in class on the topic of Washington. Towards the end he even managed to add in other true characters from history such as Sir Cornwallis during the final battle of the American Revolution. The defeat depicted in the book also reflects the aspects we studied in …show more content…
He also provided an insight into the thought process of some of the characters; which in itself would be beneficial in any story, but the fact that these ideas are backed up by history and knowing that they’re true makes them all the better. For example, one of the themes portrayed in the book was that of patriotism and courage. Patriotism played a big part of the book and also the history of that time. Being patriotic and serving your country back then was also a theme we talked about in class and was a major part for the people in the book. Lastly one of the final themes was that of espionage, though we didn’t cover it in class it also played a rather large role in the foundation of the book. With a book entitled, The Spy, there is bound to be some espionage in it somewhere. Surprisingly though, the spying depicted in this book is different from that of actual history. For example, when one thinks of spy immediately one thinks of lies, deception, and sneaking around. However the espionage depicted in this book is far more noble, heroic, and admirable then that in history. To conclude, Cooper managed to incorporate people, places, and even themes from history into his book to make it both entertaining and