The outcasts of poker flat text online

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat … he was conscious. Oakhurst has committed suicide. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. From reading the story, it shows that the place was a dreary town with a lot of problems. They look so peaceful and innocent that the onlookers cannot tell which is the virgin and which is the madam. In the middle of the night, Oakhurst wakes up and sees a heavy snowstorm raging.

The Outcasts of Poker Flat by John Oakhurst Essay

Local color is first shown in the beginning of the story when Harte talks about the people that will be banished later on in the story. Harte described the characters using familiar western types. The Duchess, a prostitute, another who had won the title of Mother Shipton, a witch, and Uncle Billy a suspected sluice robber and confirmed drunkard.

Albeit this story deals with the unpleasant side of nature, the short story, A White Heron, by Sarah Orne Jewett illustrates the exact opposite. Total Opposites In the short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte, the author uses characters in the story that have very similar characteristics, except for one, "Uncle Billy. He took large sums of money from many people in town. The residents of Poker Flat were very upset with him always winning bets and all of their money.

Out of all the people that are banned from Poker Flat, Oakhurst possesses the best qualities out of the group. It is a story about John Oakhurst, and a group of outcasts from Poker Flat, a mining town. However it was a poor place because it lost thousands of dollars, ad horses.

From reading the story, it shows that the place was a dreary town with a lot of problems. The way they got rid of outcasts was the same way on how Great Britain disposed of them. They would send them away, or they would be killed. The story revolves around the outcasts, and the mishaps they. He compares the two countries and begins to find the vast differences.

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An example of naturalism and local color of California during the first half of the nineteenth century, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" was first published in January in the magazine Overland Monthly.

It was one of two short stories which brought the author national attention. Poker Flat is, in the opinions of many, on a downward slope. The town has lost thousands of dollars, and has experienced a moral. In an effort to save what is left of the town and reestablish it as a "virtuous" place, a secret society is created to decide whom to exile and whom to kill. On November 23rd of , four "immoral" individuals are exiled from Poker Flat.

The first of them is a professional poker player, John Oakhurst. He is among those sent away because of his great success in winning from those on the secret committee. On his way out of town, he is joined by The Duchess, a saloon girl; Mother Shipton, a madam; and Uncle Billy, the town drunk and a suspected robber.

These four set out for a camp which is a day's journey away, over a mountain range. Once halfway there, all exiles other than Oakhurst decide to stop at noon for a rest, against Oakhurst's wishes. While on their rest, the group is met by a pair of runaway lovers on their way to Poker Flat to get married.

Piney Woods is a fifteen-year-old girl. Her lover, Tom Simson, known also as "the Innocent", met Oakhurst before and has great admiration for him, as Oakhurst won a great deal of money from Tom.

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Outcast poker flat text

Local color writing was an important part of the American literary chronicle during the latter part of the nineteenth century, and many writers tried their hand at it. One who made a significant contribution to the genre was Bret Harte , an easterner turned westerner who found in the mining camps of California his own gold mine of material for his literary efforts.

Harte had a deep feeling for those pioneer gold seekers, gamblers, and prostitutes who lived their lives in a devil-may-care, reckless fashion but who at the same time had the capacity for love and compassion in a setting that was not the most conducive for such.

In "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," first published in and then collected in The Luck of Roaring Camp , Harte focuses on the theme of the regenerative power of human love in a world where nothing can be assumed. He also presents an ironic contrast between self-righteousness and self-sacrifice. Poker Flat, like most California mining camps of the time, is not a model of social decorum, but, as occasionally happens in communities, some of the leading citizens feel that the place needs to spruce up its image.

Several thefts and a murder give rise to a kind of pseudomoralistic stance that demands a scapegoat or two to redeem Poker Flat's honor. Indeed, as John Oakhurst, the gambler who appears in a number of Harte's stories, ventures out on the street one morning, he senses a "Sabbath lull in the air, which in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.

His companions include two prostitutes, the Duchess and Mother Shipton , and Uncle Billy, a town drunk—an apt set of characters for a Harte story. Left by their escort at the edge of Poker Flat, the four outcasts set off toward Sandy Bar, another mining camp, where they hope to resume their normal lives.

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