Similar to his technique, Cooper's style is a simple one. He uses the figurative language of simile and metaphor sparingly, so that his exposition and description are usually factual and straightforward. Nonetheless, his diction is sometimes wordy. He writes that "David (Gamut) began to utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate organs in more wakeful moments" when all he needs to say is that "Gamut began to snore." At other times, the diction may cloy. For instance, when Heyward and Hawkeye (disguised as a bear) take the reviving Alice to the safety of the forest, Cooper writes this sentimental verbiage:
The representative of the bear had certainly been an entire stranger to the delicious emotions of the lover while his arms encircled his mistress; and he was, perhaps, a stranger also to the nature of that feeling of ingenuous shame that oppressed the trembling Alice.
Such stylistic lapses, fortunately, are overbalanced by general lucidness, Cooper's delineation of nature often achieving poetic simplicity. His description of action — Hawkeye's competitive shooting to prove his identity, for instance — can be as clear and accurate as a stated fact:
The scout had shook his priming, and cocked his piece, while speaking; and, as he ended, he threw back a foot, and slowly raised the muzzle from the earth: the motion was steady, uniform, and in one direction. When on a perfect level, it remained for a single moment, without tremor or variation, as though both man and rifle were carved in stone. During that stationary instant, it poured forth its contents, in a bright, glancing sheet of flame.
It would be difficult to improve these sentences for clarity and economy without losing the meaning and drama of the situation and action. Cooper's punctuation is sometimes erratic by standards of today, but his sentences — even the overstated ones — are always clear as to meaning.
