Arts High School

Rising 11th Graders

Honors Summer Assignment

You have two books to read in preparation for Honors English III. Please obtain a copy of the book Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (available at Amazon, the public library, or a local bookstore) as well as a copy of the book The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (available the same as above but also available online for free at www.gutenberg.org). For Mayflower, answer the 17 questions below using complete, correct sentences and textual evidence to support your answers. For The Last of the Mohicans, answer the 18 questions below using complete, correct sentences and textual evidence to support your answers. Be prepared for a quiz or essay the first week of school!

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

  1. What beliefs and character traits that typified the Pilgrims enabled them to survive in the hostile environment that greeted them in the New World? Did some of the same traits that helped them survive limit them in other ways? How so?
  2. In Of Plymouth Plantation, a work quoted in Mayflower, William Bradford attributes the death of a “proud and very profane” sailor aboard the Mayflower to “the just hand of God” (pp. 30–31). What does this almost jubilant response to another person’s suffering suggest about the nature of Bradford’s religious beliefs? How did this attitude continue to reveal itself in the other experiences of the Pilgrims and the Puritans?
  3. Philbrick shows us that many of the classic images that shape our current view of the Pilgrims—from Plymouth Rock to the usual iconography of the first Thanksgiving—have been highly fictionalized. Why has America forsaken the truth about these times in exchange for a misleading and often somewhat hokey mythology?
  4. The Pilgrims established a tradition of more or less peaceful coexistence with the Native Americans that lasted over fifty years. Why did that tradition collapse in the 1670s and what might have been done to preserve it?
  5. Discuss the character of Squanto. How did the strengths and weaknesses of his personality end up influencing history, and why did this one man make such a difference?
  6. The children of the Pilgrims were regarded in their own time as “the degenerate plant of a strange vine,” unworthy of the legacy and sacrifices of their mothers and fathers (p. 198). Why did they acquire (and largely accept) this reputation? Was it deserved? Were the denunciations of the second generation a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy?
  7. The Pilgrims and Puritans thought that the greatest gifts they could give the Indians were spiritual. The Indians, to the contrary, tended to be most impressed by the things the Europeans brought with them. How did this lack of agreement help to undermine relations between the two peoples? What were some of the other key misunderstandings that drove a wedge between the natives and the Europeans?
  8. Compare Philbrick’s portrayals of natives in Mayflower with the ways in which they have been represented in popular culture, for instance, in Hollywood movies. How doesMayflowerencourage us to rethink those representations? On the other hand, are there some popular images of Native Americans that seem to be somewhat rooted in what actually happened in the seventeenth century?
  9. In the chaotic, atrocity-filled conflict known as King Philip’s War, does anyone emerge as heroic? If so, what are the actions and qualities that identify him or her as a hero?
  10. AsMayflowershows, the American Indian tribes of New England were not a monolith, either culturally or politically. However, the English were not consistently able to think of them as separate tribes with different loyalties and desires. How did misconceptions of racial identity complicate the politics of King Philip’s War?
  11. During King Philip’s War, significant numbers of Native Americans sided with the English. How do you regard those who took up arms against their fellow natives? Do you see them as treacherous, opportunistic, or merely sensible? If you had been a native, which side would you have taken, and why?
  12. Philbrick shows that the English, as well as the American Indians, engaged in barbaric practices like torturing and mutilating their captives, as well as taking body parts as souvenirs. Could either side in King Philip’s War make any legitimate claim to moral superiority? Why or why not?
  13. Mary Rowlandson, who wrote a memoir of her abduction during the burning of Lancaster, Massachusetts, often used the word “strange” when trying to explain why God seemingly strengthened the “heathens” in their fight against the God-fearing English. Why was it so hard for Rowlandson to understand the political events going on around her? Why was it so important for her to see them in terms of divine justice?
  14. Philbrick likens the story of King Philip to Greek tragedy. Is this a useful way of thinking about Philip and the war that bears his name? Why or why not?
  15. One reviewer ofMayflowerasserted that Nathaniel Philbrick “avoid[ed] the overarching moral issues [of his subject] and [took] no sides.” Do you find this to be true? Are there moral lessons Philbrick wants us to learn? If so, what are they?
  16. History often reveals as much about the time in which it was written as it does about the time it narrates. What aspects ofMayflowermark it as a book written in the early twenty-first century?
  17. Philbrick says that the conditions that led to the outbreak of King Philip’s War “remain a lesson for us today” (348). How do you think this may be true?

The Last of the Mohicans

1. The opening two chapters establish the historical and physical setting for the first half of the novel. What do we learn about both?

2. How does Cooper present Major Heyward and the two Munro sisters? How can we tell they are out of place in the environment they must traverse? Why does Cooper add David Gamut to their party? How does he first appear?

3. Magua also makes his first appearance in the opening chapters. What do we learn about him? What aspects of his behavior foreshadow his emergence as the major antagonist of the narrative?

4. In Ch. 3 and 4, Cooper introduces Natty Bumppo, known in this novel as Hawk-eye, and his friends Chingachgook and Uncas. What qualities distinguish them? How to they relate to the environment that surrounds them? How do they read that environment in ways that Heyward cannot?

5. In these early chapters, how does Cooper introduce the theme of the decline of Native American culture? How does he continue to build on this as the novel continues?

6. Why does Cooper use the episode of the Indians attacks and the first captivity of the English party?

7. During this first captivity, Magua offers to free Heyward, Alice, and Gamut if Cora will agree to be his wife. Why does he ask this? What does taking Cora as a wife represent to him? What does it represent to her?

8. Hawk-eye, Chingachgook and Uncas save the captives and manage to get them safely to Fort William Henry. How does Cooper use this portion of their journey to develop more of the background on the conflict between the French and English for control of portions of North America?

9. Chapter 16 provides a respite from the journey and the tension that surrounds the fort. What does Heyward learn in this chapter? How does Cooper use the conversation between Heyward and Munro to tell the reader more about the differences between Cora and Alice? Why are these differences significant? Do they introduce problematic elements into Cooper’s narrative?

10. Chapter 17 presents the bloody siege upon the surrendered British troops and civilians. How does Cooper make use of language from captivity narratives? Why is he doing this? How does this chapter also continue to build the picture of the French-British conflict?

11. In Chapter 18, Cooper tells the reader that he is now about to leave the historical record for the rest of his narrative. Why does he do this? How does he begin to develop the elements of an American myth in the second half of the novel?

12. The second half of the book presents the extended captivity of Cora and Alice. In this instance, however, it is Uncas who steps forward to lead the quest for their return. What are the implications of this shift away from Heyward?

13. During the second half of the narrative, Cooper uses a number of scenes that seem to stretch the credulity of the reader, even if we agree that fiction involves the “willing suspension of disbelief.” What are the effects of the scenes of Natty dressed as a bear? Of Heyward as a medicine man?

14. Uncas is captured by the Delawares and Magua discovers that he now has his arch rival in a position to demand his death. How are his plans frustrated?

15. In Chapter 30, Uncas reveals his true identity. What is the effect of his revelation? How does Tamenund respond?

16. All of Magua’s prisoners are released, except for Cora, who must follow him into the wilderness. In the climax of the pursuit that follows, Cooper structures a symbolic drama that involves Magua, Cora and Uncas. What happens in this scene? What are the implications of what has occurred?

17. The last chapter presents the funeral for Uncas and Cora, and introduces once again what Cooper sees as the problematic issue of miscegenation for American culture. What is this so problematic for Hawk-eye?

18. In the last Chapter, Tamenund also delivers a lament for the fate of Native Americans. What does his lament reveal? Is it an appropriate closing to this novel? How do you interpret the implications of the ending for the American culture that will emerge a few decades after the novel takes place?