These chapters are important for certain revelations and one presentation of status quo ante (prior state of affairs). The latter comes in Magua's explaining his past; his noble birth and his deserved but ignoble treatment by Munro do not justify his present actions, but they do make him and his conduct believable. They also raise the questions of justice and the big context of shared responsibility.
The revelations begin with Heyward's learning of the fame of his two former Indian companions, Chingachgook as "Le Gros Serpent" (The Great Snake) and Uncas as "Le Cerf Agile" (The Nimble Deer). Magua makes clear not only his motives but also the alternative routes that he will let his vengeance take. Perhaps the most important is Gamut's self-revelation when he struggles hand-to-hand with his captors: "David had contended, and the novelty of the circumstance held him silent." The realities of frontier strife are beginning to impinge upon him.
Two influences on Cooper's fiction are also apparent. Indian lore comes forth in the figurative language of the natives, in the masterful and persuasive oratory of Magua, in the Hurons' contrasting silent patience and loud bloodthirstiness, and in methods of torture such as tying a man's arms to the tops of two bent saplings that will recoil in different directions. Sentimental qualities appear in the reactions of the fragile Alice, in the extreme testing of Cora's virtue and familial emotions, and in Heyward's over-vocalized sense of duty and honor.
Holding together all of these fictional elements is the plot device of the chase, through which a reversal of fortunes has occurred. Some of the pursued and some of the pursuers have exchanged their roles, while some have had relative security usurped by imminent danger and vice versa.
