How Flattery Divides the Races

In The Last of the Mohicans, many different tactics are used to separate the European characters from the native characters. One that we haven't talked about is the use of flattery. I find it very interesting that Heyward, who is supposed to be out of place in the wilderness and foreign to the native's ways, somehow has a very good understanding of their customs for interaction through flattery that he seems to have learned on his own. When Heyward, Alice, Cora, and Gamut are captured by Magua in the beginning, Heyward makes a point of flattering Magua in the hopes of changing the direction they're traveling. Heyward says he is worthy of his honorable name (Le Renard Subtil) and calls him wise and a great chief (108). Much later, when Heyward is in the Huron camp, he wins the important men of the tribe over by flattering them. In response to a question regarding his appearance, Heyward says that he has removed his normal clothing and painted himself in the style of the natives as an act of respect. This pronunciation is met with a "low murmur of applause [that] announced that the compliment to the tribe was favourably received" (267). Somehow, Heyward knows that flattery is the way to convince the natives of his innocence and trustworthiness.

This custom is supported by Magua's actions when he's trying to retrieve his prisoners from the Delaware camp. When asked to, essentially, plead his case before the tribe, Magua stands and gives a speech in which he says nothing of the prisoners or who he is, but condemns the actions of the white men and praises the Lenni Lenape, the Delaware's ancestors (340). He has the tribe's rapt attention of the tribe, whose eyes were "riveted on his own, heads erect" and spoke with "eager voices." Here we see that flattery is not just a ploy by Heyward, but a legitimate oral communication technique used by the natives (according to Cooper) to achieve power over people.

Cooper sets up a dichotomy between the natives who are easily swayed by flattery, and the Europeans who see it as a servile and unimpressive. After Heyward compliments Montcalm during the battle at Fort William Henry, praising the "vigour" of his excellency, "Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the air of a man too practiced to remember the language of flattery" (174). The use of flattery serves to lower the status of the natives in the eyes of the audience since it is not equated with honesty, making the natives look foolish. Because of our own customs, it is hard to recognize flattery as an art form and the sign of a great orator and leader.