Images of the Hunter in American Life and Literature

217 Pages·2000·1.037 MB·English

by  Lynda Wolfe Coupe

Images of the Hunter
in American Life
and Literature
Studies on Themes and Motifs
in Literature
Horst S. Daemmrich
General Editor
Vol. 54
PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Boston (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Lynda Wolfe Coupe
Images of the Hunter
in American Life
and Literature
PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Boston (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coupe, Lynda Wolfe.
Images of the hunter in American life and literature / Lynda Wolfe Coupe.
p. cm. — (Studies on themes and motifs in literature; vol. 54)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. American literature—History and criticism. 2. Hunters in literature.
3. Hunting in literature. 4. Hunters—United States.
5. Hunting—United States. I. Title. II. Series.
PS173.H85C68 810.9’3526391—dc21 99-32032
ISBN 0-8204-4555-X
ISSN 1056-3970
Die Deutsche Bibliothek-CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Coupe, Lynda Wolfe:
Images of the hunter in American life and literature / Lynda Wolfe Coupe.
−New York; Washington, D.C./Baltimore; Boston; Bern;
Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Brussels; Vienna; Oxford: Lang.
(Studies on themes and motifs in literature; Vol. 54)
ISBN 0-8204-4555-X
Author photo by Michael Gillen
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.
© 2000 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
This book is dedicated to
my husband, John Coupe, who is my own Daniel Boone;
to my mother, Evelyn Wolfe;
and to the memory of my father, Donald Adams

Acknowledgments
I owe a great debt to so many people for supporting me through the
process that ultimately resulted in this book. The topic of my dissertation
upon which the book is based was inspired by my husband, John Coupe.
Hunting and fishing with him has immersed me in the life of the woods
where I have experienced the moments of clarity and self-knowledge that
I describe in my discussion of hunter figures.
William Kelly, my adviser at CUNY, was indefatigable in editing my
dissertation and urged me on with his kind but rigorous comments. I also
wish to thank my dissertation committee, Joan Richardson and David
Reynolds.
My editor, Debora Lyne, has been tireless in her meticulous work on
the many drafts and endless revisions of the book manuscript. Her effi-
ciency and good nature have rallied me through many setbacks.
My friends and colleagues at Pace University also contributed much
appreciated moral and practical support over many years. Becky Martin,
Ruth Anne Thompson, and Joe Franco assured me that completing the
dissertation and the degree was indeed possible. Mike Gillen has been a
wonderful colleague and mentor from whom I have learned valuable ad-
ministrative skills. Bob Klaeger has kept me working in the Department
of Literature and Communications so that I may pursue my love of teach-
ing as well as writing.
My siblings, Sue, Gail, and Walt, have believed in me more than I could
ever believe in myself. Of course, my mother, Evelyn Wolfe, is my hero.
She has persevered through personal and health crises and continues to
do so with rare strength and grace. I am just sorry my father, Donald
Adams, did not live to see the publication of this book. I also wish to
thank my many friends for their support, especially Donna D’Angelo,
who was so happy for me when I told her the book had been accepted for
publication.
VIII Acknowledgments

There were also a score of people who suggested books, articles, and
ideas to pursue that added so much to the depth and scope of this study.
To all these and more I want to say thank you.
The following publishers have generously given permission to use ex-
tended quotations from copyrighted works.
Auel, Jean M. The Clan of the Cave Bear. New York: Bantam Books,
1980. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.
Faragher, John Mack. Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an Ameri-
can Pioneer. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1992. Reprinted by
permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.
Tilton, Robert Steven. “American Lavinia: The Pocahontas Narrative in
Ante-Bellum America.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford, 1992. Reprinted by
permission of the author. All rights reserved.
The mythology of a nation is the intelligible mask of that enigma called
the “national character.” Through myths the psychology and world view
of our cultural ancestors are transmitted to modern descendants, in such
a way and with such power that our perception of contemporary reality
and our ability to function in the world are directly . . . affected.
Richard Slotkin in Regeneration Through Violence:
The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860

Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Pocahontas and John Smith: Metaphorical
Parents of the American Hunter Figure 9
Chapter 2 Boone and Bumppo: The Emerging Hunter Figure 31
Chapter 3 Teddy Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill: From Sustenance
to Slaughter, From Excess to Conservation 83
Chapter 4 Ike McCaslin and Ernest Hemingway: Nostalgia
and Degeneration 119
Chapter 5 Thomas McGuane and Ayla: The Cowboy and
the Cave Girl 151
Conclusion 181
Works Cited and Consulted 185
Index 201

Introduction
The hunter is a liminal figure, traversing opposing worlds of wilderness
and civilization, able to participate in both and yet not fully belonging to
either. He is at once privileged and marginal. The hunter’s practical skills,
as well as his mythic connotations and the language used to describe him,
all reflect a changing concept of American power.
Evolving across the span of American time, the hunter serves as a
barometer of the social concerns of the nation. Initially, the hunter reflects
American rebellion against the power of European aristocracy. Gradually,
the hunter redefines the term aristocracy to accommodate American
concerns with landscape, identity, and race and gender. But by the end of
the nineteenth century, individualism, in the form of personal indepen-
dence and initiative, replaces aristocracy—the hereditary claim to author-
ity—as the basis of power in America. The hunter derives his power from
his special place in the American culture.
Several studies have tried to capture the nature of the American expe-
rience with a single metaphor or system of symbols.1 Many notable ef-
forts have centered around the use of myth to explain conceptions of the
American character.2 This book does not try to define the American ex-
perience in terms of a single, unifying myth. Rather, it examines a cluster
of images of the hunter. The hunter hero provides a focus for reading
important cultural issues across the span of American time.
This study is organized chronologically, using pairs of representative
figures from American literature, history, and popular culture. The pairs
include Pocahontas and John Smith; Daniel Boone and Nathaniel Bumppo
from James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales; Theodore
Roosevelt and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody; William Faulkner’s Ike McCaslin
from “The Bear” and Ernest Hemingway; and author and screenwriter
Thomas McGuane and Ayla from Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear.