All of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking novels center on the contrast between the primitive but usually noble world of the Indian and the frontiersman and that of civilized society. In The Deerslayer, it is young Natty Bumppo, raised by Indians in a life close to nature, who comes in conflict with the world of greed and corruption represented by Hurry March and Tom Hutter, an old trapper who lives in a "swimming fortress" in the middle of a wilderness lake. The lake has also been chosen as a meeting place for Natty, known among the Indians as the Deerslayer, and his Delaware Indian friend Chingachgook, the Serpent.

Although Deerslayer is used to the often harsh practices of the Indians, he does not condone them; he does understand their reasons for their desire to take scalps and kill their enemies.

What he does not understand is the...