The motive force for a plot in fiction is always, it seems, one or more of three kinds of conflict: man against man, man against environment, or man against himself. Sometimes the conflict is so subtly treated that the inexperienced reader is at best only subconsciously aware that it exists at all. Such, however, is not true of Cooper's novel. Primarily the conflict is seen as man against man: whites versus Indians, Indians versus Indians, English versus French. More softly treated but nonetheless permeating is the looming fact that man is coping with the frontier, trying to conquer, tame, and possess it; it is this, in fact, which leads to the obvious conflicts of man versus man. And it is constant, the steady principle in all the variations of the man-against-man conflict. Without it or something very like it, the plot, no matter how skillfully attempted, probably could not come into being, and there would be no novel.
Having or discovering the prime motive force, however, solves only half the novelist's plot problem. This lifelike principle must find its way into some kind of active material substance. In the case of the fiction writer, this material becomes such things as setting and characterization, which will be discussed below. The unifying element of activity and progression we call structure; when the writer structures his conflict(s), he has then realized and created his plot.
