SOCIAL IMPACTS OF THE COMING IMMIGRANTS ON THE NATIVE AMERICAN: A Study on James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie

Abstract

This literary research is primarily aimed at revealing the social impacts of modernization
on the traditional life as reflected in Cooper’s The Prairie. The study uses
interdisciplinary approach, which involves historical, cultural, and ecological approaches,
including mimetic approach. The analysis shows that modernization does
not only cause positive impacts but also stronger negative impacts. The negative
impacts include human conflict, cultural conflict, imbalanced ecology, poverty, disharmony,
social injustice of mixed marriage, greediness, kidnapping, and law breaking.
The positive impacts include independence, adaptation, rationality, and efficiency.
The problems that appear in the novel reflect the inner conflict of the author. Cooper
as the author questions the ideas brought by the immigrants on the Indian land. For
him, modernization can only be enjoyed by the upper class of the society—the White.
It cannot meet the necessity of the people native the Indians. They lose some benefits
because of the settlement of the immigrants in their land.