Hawkeye Character Analysis in The Last of the Mohicans

Also known as Natty Bumppo and La Longue Carabine, Hawkeye is a white man who has lived with Uncas and Chingachgook, “the last of the Mohicans” in the New York forests, for many years. Hawkeye fights with the Mohicans on the side of the English, against the French and their “Mingo” (or Iroquois) allies. At the end of the novel, after witnessing Magua’s killing of Uncas, Hawkeye shoots and kills Magua. Hawkeye considers himself a brother of Chingachgook’s, despite their different ancestries, and therefore treats Uncas with the love and care reserved for a son. Hawkeye refers to himself as a “man without a cross,” meaning he observes no Christian religion, and sees himself as existing between the Native American and European cultures of the New World.

Hawkeye Quotes in The Last of the Mohicans

The The Last of the Mohicans quotes below are all either spoken by Hawkeye or refer to Hawkeye. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Savagery,” Civilization, and the Frontier Theme Icon

These Indians know the nature of the woods, as it might be by instinct!

Related Characters: Hawkeye (speaker), Uncas, Chingachgook

Page Number and Citation: 29

Explanation and Analysis:

A Huron! They are a thievish race, nor do I care by whom they are adopted; you can never make anything of them but skulks and vagabonds.

Related Characters: Hawkeye (speaker), Magua

Page Number and Citation: 34

Explanation and Analysis:

What is to be done? . . . Desert me not, for God’s sake! Remain to defend those I escort, and freely name your own reward!

Related Characters: Duncan Heyward (speaker), Hawkeye

Page Number and Citation: 44

Explanation and Analysis:

Well done for the Delawares! Victory to the Mohican! A finishing blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor rob him of his right to the scalp.

Related Characters: Hawkeye (speaker)

Related Symbols: “A man without a cross”

Page Number and Citation: 124

Explanation and Analysis:

I little like that smoke, which you may see worming up along the rock above the canoe. my life on it, other eyes than ours see it, and know its meaning. Well, words will not mend the matter, and it is time that we were doing.

Related Characters: Hawkeye (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 241

Explanation and Analysis:

We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, and going over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that he has a foot which leaves no print.

Related Characters: Hawkeye (speaker), Chingachgook

Page Number and Citation: 247

Explanation and Analysis:

Hawkeye Character Timeline in The Last of the Mohicans

The timeline below shows where the character Hawkeye appears in The Last of the Mohicans. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...small strip of cloth, and he carries a tomahawk and knife. The white scout, called Hawkeye (or Natty Bumppo), and Chingachgook talk of their family histories; Chingachgook relates that his tribe,... (full context)

...as the Maquas or Mingos. Another native named Uncas, son of Chingachgook, arrives, and asks Hawkeye whether he will help Uncas and Chingachgook fight the Maquas and the French, their allies,... (full context)

Heyward approaches Hawkeye, and says that his party has become lost in the woods—that their guide, the runner,... (full context)

Hawkeye asks to see the runner, who is standing back behind the psalmodist (named David) and... (full context)

Hawkeye tells Heyward to busy the runner, whose name is Magua, or Le Renard Subtil, in... (full context)

...Magua, emerge from the forest in pursuit of him, and a shot rings out from Hawkeye’s rifle as Magua runs into the deep woods. (full context)

Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye attempt to track Magua for a moment, but then return to Heyward, who has been... (full context)

Heyward, with desperation in his voice as the night falls, asks Hawkeye if he and his two Mohican friends will serve as guides to convey the group... (full context)

Gender Roles and Gender Expectations Theme Icon

...without delay, slits its throat and dumps it in the stream—much to David’s chagrin, although Hawkeye and Chingachgook agree that it is the right strategy to save the party. The other... (full context)

...getting situated along the banks, in preparation for retiring to the hiding place, Heyward asks Hawkeye if the Delawares (a larger tribe closely related to the Mohicans) and Mohicans have given... (full context)

Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook direct Heyward, David, Alice, and Cora into the caverns near the waterfalls,... (full context)

...group eats, and all appear satisfied that they have alluded any enemies for the night. Hawkeye talks to David and asks about his employment; on hearing that David is a singer,... (full context)

Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook go off to another part of the cave to sleep, and Heyward,... (full context)

Hawkeye says to Heyward and his band that he (Hawkeye) has never heard such a cry... (full context)

...for several hours. After Cora and Alice and David sleep for a time, Heyward and Hawkeye awaken them and say it is time to move the band onward. At this, however,... (full context)

Hawkeye drags David back down into the cave, and seeing that David’s wound is only superficial,... (full context)

Hawkeye and Heyward spot five Mingos drifting down the river on wooden logs; one Mingo falls... (full context)

Once Heyward, Hawkeye, and the Mohicans have regrouped on the rocks, a new volley of fire from the... (full context)

Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye attempt to aim at the Mingo in the tree, and Hawkeye, after taking a moment... (full context)

But Uncas and Hawkeye, leaning over the rocks, see a Huron (one of the sub-tribes of the Maquas) stealing... (full context)

Heyward and Cora, however, dispute that the band has to die at all. Cora tells Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook to float downstream and carry word back to Ford Edward, asking for... (full context)

Hawkeye and Chingachgook float downstream, although Uncas is loath to follow—he appears to feel devoted to... (full context)

...the beauty of the forest, as the Mingos have pulled back and Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye have now floated downstream. Heyward sees only the birds and trees of the forest, and... (full context)

...the nearby rocks, raising cries at the sight of their fallen comrades, killed by Heyward, Hawkeye, and Uncas. The Maquas also repeat the name “La Longue Carabine,” given to Hawkeye, as... (full context)

Magua asks Heyward where Hawkeye went, and Heyward replies that Hawkeye and the two Mohicans floated downstream to give word... (full context)

...horseback, with Magua and the other warriors leading the prisoners through the forest. Cora remembers Hawkeye’s injunction to mark the path as they go along, and she bends the bough of... (full context)

Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook storm into the clearing, determined to kill all the Mingos present. Heyward... (full context)

...are all right—the young women cry out with joy that the band is saved, and Hawkeye unties David, who is similarly thankful. Uncas and Chingachgook then collect scalps from the dead... (full context)

Heyward, on their walk to a nearby watering hole, asks Hawkeye and the Mohicans how they came to save them. Hawkeye relates that, after their trip... (full context)

Hawkeye tells the band to drink of the spring near where they’ve stopped, and after a... (full context)

Hawkeye leads the band through the forest, saying that there is a place up ahead they... (full context)

...the block house to sleep, and though Heyward wishes to keep watch during the night, Hawkeye says it would be better for Chingachgook and Uncas to do so, since they are... (full context)

...inside, including the horses. Although Heyward wants to fire on the Hurons as they approach, Hawkeye cautions him, saying they ought to wait and see what the Hurons do. As it... (full context)

...on the riverbank—the men do this to avoid detection of their footprints as they travel. Hawkeye tells Heyward of some of the battles he has fought, on the English side against... (full context)

...on his belt. Although many in the band, including Heyward, are shocked by this behavior, Hawkeye justifies it by saying the band is safer for it, and that, for a native,... (full context)

Hawkeye says they have two options for proceeding to the fort: they can send the Mohicans... (full context)

...of a ridge, on which they rise for nearly a thousand feet. At this point, Hawkeye points out that the southern shore of Lake George is visible, and that the group... (full context)

Heyward asks Hawkeye the most prudent course to gain admission to the fort, through enemy lines. Heyward wonders... (full context)

...into the valley separating the English from the French lines, but avoiding the spots where Hawkeye believes Mingos might be camped. The band is nearly hit by a French cannonball, and... (full context)

Munro meets with Heyward, telling him that Hawkeye has passed through enemy lines and been released by Montcalm back into the English fort,... (full context)

...frame, which the narrator does not describe, but which Magua assumes to be that of Hawkeye. But just as Magua is about to fire his rifle, Montcalm stops him, saying that... (full context)

...to the top of the mountain, south of Lake George, from which the band, under Hawkeye’s leadership, had previously observed Fort William Henry. Magua instead shows Alice (who has now woken... (full context)

The morning after, Munro, Heyward, Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook walk out on the field where the massacre has taken place. The... (full context)

Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye also find signs of David’s and Magua’s footprints and clothing near Cora’s torn shawl, causing... (full context)

But Hawkeye says that Alice is perhaps in the company of Cora, Magua, and David, and Hawkeye... (full context)

...spend the night alone, and to worry about the fate of his daughters. Heyward and Hawkeye mount the fort’s rampart to look over the plains again, where the massacre was conducted.... (full context)

Uncas lies close to the ground and, as Heyward watches with Hawkeye, proceeds to sense that a native is in fact walking nearby, perhaps hoping to pick... (full context)

When Heyward expresses confusion as to why an Oneida would attack a Mohican, Hawkeye answers that, perhaps, the Oneida believed that the French had taken over the fort, and... (full context)

Heyward withdraws a few paces and watches as Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye dine around their fire and converse in the Delaware language (also the language of the... (full context)

The next morning, Hawkeye wakes up Munro and Heyward, and the five of them move, on rocks and twigs... (full context)

Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye begin paddling the canoe, with Heyward and Munro sitting towards its rear. As the band... (full context)

Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook take up paddling again, and continue for hours until they reach an... (full context)

...by white settlers—English or French—and not very well known even by natives. Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye hunt for traces of Magua and the two young women, but finding very little, they... (full context)

...finds the faintest imprint of a moccasin, about the size of David’s feet—Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye conclude that David has been forced into native shoes and has been made to walk,... (full context)

Suddenly, Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye realize that David, perhaps, became tired in his walking—Magua’s and the two young women’s footprint... (full context)

Hawkeye begins to laugh and approach this man, and though Heyward is confused as to why... (full context)

Hawkeye, Uncas, Chingachgook, Munro, and Heyward begin speaking to David. David says that Alice and Cora... (full context)

...to continue in his disguise as a fool and medicine man, and reminds Heyward that Hawkeye and Chingachgook remain in the surrounding woods as protection, in case Heyward should need it.... (full context)

...William Henry, including Uncas’s rescue of the two sisters, with the help of Chingachgook and Hawkeye. When another warrior, seething with anger at the Hurons Uncas has killed, tries to throw... (full context)

...the bear takes off its own head, and Heyward realizes that the bear is really Hawkeye in an incredibly convincing disguise—Hawkeye has managed to steal the bear costume from a previous... (full context)

Hawkeye then asks if Heyward has managed to find any trace of Alice, and Heyward says... (full context)

...both Alice and Heyward trapped. But before Magua can act to kill Heyward and Alice, Hawkeye enters the cave partition, having heard the commotion, and leaps onto Magua, pinning him and... (full context)

...spirits still residing inside, by the sick woman. While the Hurons wait outside the caverns, Hawkeye and Heyward carry Alice into the woods, where Alice revives from her faint. (full context)

After they walk farther into the woods, Hawkeye directs Alice and Heyward to the Delaware village nearby, where Cora is believed to be... (full context)

Hawkeye walks back to the Huron village, and finds David in his own, small hut, which... (full context)

David walks with Hawkeye to the lodge of the chiefs in the village, and says that he, David, wishes... (full context)

Hawkeye enters Uncas’s small prison-hut while David guards the entrance. Hawkeye dances for a moment in... (full context)

...in the Huron village, creating a diversion by yelling in Uncas’s prison hut, to allow Hawkeye and Uncas to escape. Hawkeye, singing loudly and pretending to be David, walks with Uncas... (full context)

...sick native woman has been lying, attended to by the original Huron conjuror, from whom Hawkeye stole the bear costume. The native woman has now died from her sickness—which the Hurons... (full context)

...that Magua, so great a warrior, has been trapped and duped by Heyward, Uncas, and Hawkeye. Magua, enraged, screams that he will exact revenge, and wonders aloud how best to capture... (full context)

...Magua then asks if the Delawares have received among them members of the “band,” including Hawkeye, Uncas, Alice, and Heyward—the Delawares then bustle about, realizing that one of the prisoners they... (full context)

...younger Delaware warriors, some Delawares go to the village’s prison-lodge and lead out Cora, Alice, Hawkeye, and Heyward, as the assembled Hurons and Delawares wait to hear Tamenund speak. (full context)

...which of the prisoners is “La Longue Carabine,” owner of Kildeer, and both Heyward and Hawkeye say that they are; Heyward, worried about what the Delawares will do to Hawkeye, attempts... (full context)

Heyward shoots very close to an earthen vessel nearby, but Hawkeye completely shatters it. In the next trial, Heyward hits a far more distant target, a... (full context)

...and Magua, cheered at this news, eyes Cora longingly, and has Cora, Alice, Heyward, and Hawkeye seized and held in place by obliging Delawares. Cora, however, wrestles free of her Delaware... (full context)

Tamenund therefore says that Uncas is one of them, and Uncas, in response, presents Hawkeye, “La Longue Carabine,” an enemy to the French. But because Hawkeye is Uncas’s friend, Uncas... (full context)

...pay a large ransom on Cora’s behalf. But Tamenund says that this justice is “inviolable.” Hawkeye says that he will renounce his weapon, give up his fight against the Mingos, and... (full context)

Cora tells Hawkeye and the rest of the band that she would not have accepted Hawkeye’s generosity anyway,... (full context)

...may again attack Magua and attempt to wrest Cora from his control. Uncas, Heyward, and Hawkeye gather their weapons, and Heyward places Alice safely among the Delaware women in the village.... (full context)

Heyward and Hawkeye believe they see a Huron in the forest, but it is only David, who has... (full context)

Uncas, Heyward, and Hawkeye make their way through the forest, dodging bullets shot by scattered Hurons, who defend the... (full context)

After moving forward and running up against Huron opposition, however, Heyward and Hawkeye hear shots fired from behind enemy lines, and recognize Chingachgook and Munro, who have been... (full context)

Heyward, Hawkeye, and Uncas find that two Huron warriors are in fact carrying Cora up the rocky... (full context)

...back exposed, and weaponless, Uncas is stabbed by Magua multiple times, and killed. Heyward and Hawkeye then pursue Magua, who jumps from ledge to ledge on the cliff on the far... (full context)

...performed). Munro thanks the Delawares for all they have done on behalf of his family. Hawkeye, still “a man without a cross,” joins with Chingachgook in watching the Delawares wrap Uncas’s... (full context)

The Last of the Mohicans

Hawkeye Character Analysis

Hawkeye Quotes in The Last of the Mohicans

Chapter 3 Quotes

Chapter 4 Quotes

Chapter 5 Quotes

Chapter 12 Quotes

Chapter 20 Quotes

Chapter 21 Quotes

Hawkeye Character Timeline in The Last of the Mohicans