Hope Leslie and Magawisca are both a strong and positive representation of women, which would seem uncommon for female characters at that time. Magawisca’s strong morals are displayed not only to her own race but to the white people as well. She saves Everell, sacrificing her own arm, and again puts herself at risk by connecting Hope Leslie and her sister back together. Magawisca is described as strong, confident and beautiful. Similarly Hope Leslie is described in the same manor. Hope Leslie and Magawisca are sort of the same character except one lives in a white persons world and one lives in an Indian persons world. Both characters cross the racial divide in order to fight for what they believe to be right. Hope Leslie also has strong inner morals and relies on this inner instinct to guide her choices in life. She has a strong connection to Magawisca and feels she can trust her when she says she will reconnect Hope and her sister. Hope also helps to free Nelema from the accusations of witchcraft and also facilitates Magawisca’s escape from prison.
The female characters that Cooper represents in his novel are not as strong or as interesting as Sedgwick’s. Cora and Alice are much more submissive and powerless. Everything is very frightening for them and they need men to come to their rescue. Alice is much more of the weak, scared women. Cora is the stronger of the two and offers to sacrifice herself and her sister to the savages so that the others can escape. Cora is confident that they would not harm her or her sister.
Both authors use two females as the main representation of women in their novels. Cooper has only two women in the novel while Sedgwick’s main female characters are two of many. Another similarity is that both authors have one main white female lead and one other. Sedgwick has both her main female roles represented equally whereas there is a string imbalance between Cooper’s Cora and Alice.
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