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In Bret Harte’s “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” a committee of citizens from a struggling mining town in Gold Rush-era California banishes a group of undesirable residents: John Oakhurst (a gambler), Mother Shipton and the Duchess (prostitutes), and Uncle Billy (a drunk).
- Fate
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The...
- Summary & Analysis
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The...
- Fate
The Outcasts of Poker Flat study guide contains a biography of Bret Harte, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes.
- Appearances and Reality
- Change and Transformation
- Fate and Chance
- Heroism
At the beginning of the story, the four outcasts are described as "improperpersons," and their initial actions suggest that, except for Oakhurst, they arefoul-mouthed, lazy, and prone to drunkenness. However, because they come fromanother settlement, Tom and Piney know little about these strangers, and theirperceptions are not clouded by the prejud...
Related to the themes of appearance and reality are the issues of change andtransformation. During their period of confinement, the outcasts, particularlythe two prostitutes, experience a type of metamorphosis. At first the womenappear self-centered and dismissive of Tom and Piney and contemptuous of theirnaiveté. But as the group grows closer, the...
Chance plays a critical role in the demise of the stranded travelers. Manydevelopments within the narrative rely on random occurrences. Among the manyexamples, one can argue that if the outcasts did not stop for the night or hadbegun their journey one day earlier, they would have missed the snow andreached Sandy Bar. Similarly, if Tom and Piney had...
To many readers, an important message of the story is that society oftenfails to recognize the true heroes and heroines in its midst. One can certainlyargue this is the case with the sacrifice of Mother Shipton as well as theselfless devotion of Duchess. In both cases, women condemned by society provethemselves to be morally superior to their judge...
Themes in The Outcasts of Poker Flat Judgement of Others : The townspeople living in Poker Flats cast judgement on the story’s main characters and exile them from the town. The narrative describes these exiles as working in unfavorable professions: John is a gambler, the two women are prostitutes.
‘The Outcasts of Poker Flat’ is set at a time when vigilante ‘justice’ and lawlessness were both rife in California, during the Gold Rush that had begun in 1848. But Bret Harte invites us to ask if the titular ‘outcasts’ of the story really deserved their fate.
Major Themes in Bret Harte's The Outcasts of Poker Flat. Learn and understand all of the themes found in The Outcasts of Poker Flat, such as The Complexity of Human Beings. Learn how the author incorporated them and why.
