The Prairie

Trying to advance the romanticism of Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper brings forth much deeper meaning to the traditional capture and pursuit novel. He shows the
end of America's youth, the inevitable march of progress and ecological disaster. Some of his characters and settings (like the rock in the middle of the prairie) evoke donzel in distress umbilical structures, but he is aiming for a little more.
But his reference is either theater of painting, and explores this when describing a painted shirt worn by the indian. The long, implausibe dialogs are part of the game.