The motif of disguise, already foreshadowed by such procedures as imitating animals for signals, begins here in earnest and is to become a highly important ingredient of the plot during the rest of the story. Closely connected with this in terms of technique will be lurid, frightening scenes reminiscent of the Gothic novel, begun at the end of this chapter with the grotesque, jumping silhouettes of the Indian children. Though according to Cooper's knowledge of Indians they did venerate a "non-com-posser," such a view is a warping of the normal attitude of civilization. Conversely, the white man's temporary alliances with various tribes has disrupted the normal Indian order of things. All of these elements give a sense of the chaotic unreality of the frontier as Cooper sees it.
Ironically, out of this chaos has come the frontiersman, the ideal man. But the irony goes further because of the noble scout's "secret love of desperate adventure which had increased with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some measure, necessary to the enjoyment of his existence." Without the challenge, Hawkeye as Hawkeye could not exist. The situation is a prime instance of that mixed blessing that constitutes tragedy. Furthermore, when the frontier condition ceases, so inevitably must Hawkeye and others of his particular stature.
Cooper, of course, does not tell the reader this in so many words. If he did, he would be writing an essay. Instead, he uses the indirect and more telling method of fiction, in which meaning and significance are suggested by characters, actions, and situations.
