Civilizing the Wilderness
The Pioneers traces what Fenimore saw as the logical progression of a wilderness from primitive founding to civilization: democratic-socialism enforced by common necessity followed by an anarchic breaking apart into the haves and have-nots before a return to democratic-socialism based not on necessity but on the share desire to establish order and laws. As a result, the civilizing concept plays a substantial thematic role which is expressed through language and thoughts:
“surely nothing could look more like civilization than a city, even if it lay in a wilderness!”
A Smile without Guile
On two different occasions, Elizabeth’s smile warrants special attention by the author. The first lays a more literal foundation for the metaphor which is to come a short while later. Importantly, it should be noted that the smile is not purpose or designed for effect:
“The involuntary smile that passed over the features of Elizabeth was blended with an expression of deep and heartfelt pity… The smile of Elizabeth was celestial.”
“might makes right, and the law is stronger than an old man”
The “old man” in this particular case is Natty Bumppo, the hero of the entire Leatherstocking Tales. In this particular quote the references is specific and literal to Bumppo, but more importantly is its station as metaphor. The entire novel becomes a standoff between the old wilderness ways of Bumppo where laws were not written down, but observed out of shared interests and common understanding. Bumppo’s time is almost over; democracy is ready to claim the wilderness from its primitive era.
Humility
Essential to the processes of democratizing civilization is the necessity of learning the value of humility. The author subtly pursues a thematic thread that the transformation civilization from the state of anarchy to democratic self-government is dependent upon this character and that without the process heads down a completely different path: aristocracy. So, by definition, in order for European immigrants to understand and assimilate into the New World, they must be politically baptized through humility as it were so that they can understand birth confers no superiority.
“Humility and penitence are the seals of Christianity; and, without feeling them deeply seated in the soul, all hope is delusive, and leads to vain expectations.”
The End
The novel comes to an end on a metaphor. The last line sends Natty Bumppo off into the sunset (prematurely, it turns out) while at the same time turning toward the sunrise to welcome a continuing a wave of pioneers destined to take his place.
“He had gone far toward the setting sun—the foremost in that band of pioneers who are opening the way for the march of the nation across the continent.”
