Bret Harte Outcasts Of Poker Flat

Bret Harte The Outcasts Of Poker Flat
The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Bret Harte Quizlet
Outcasts Of Poker Flat Worksheets

Bret Harte The Outcasts Of Poker Flat

In the short story “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” by Bret Harte he uses diction to convey the hidden goodness in the so-called outcast. In “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” the town had come up with a secret committee to determine who shall be exiled. They decided that four of the townspeople should be exiled from Poker Flat for reasons like gambling, prostitution, robbery, and witchcraft. The four were banished from the town and if returned they would be hung. So the four headed of to Sandy Bar, a small town over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. During this time in Poker Flat the town was becoming a gold district. Also some hydraulic mining was done from the late 1850s through the 1880s. (W.B. Clark, Gold Districts of California, California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, Bulletin 193, 1970.)
Throughout the story you start to see that the characters aren’t as bad as the townspeople say they are. In the beginning you could describe Mr. Oakhurst as calm and collected but towards the end he starts to loose it little by little. He is described as calm many times in the story, “ Mr. Oakhurst’s calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these indications.”(Harte, Bret “The Outcast of Poker Flat”) At the end he decides that he’s going to go for help but he really leaves and kills himself which shows that he lost himself while he was out there, “Night came, but Mr. Oakhurst.” (Harte, Bret “The Outcast of Poker Flat”) You can also see change in Mother Shipton.…

Bret Harte's Gold Rush: 'Outcasts of Poker Flat,' 'The Luck of Roaring Camp,' 'Tennessee's Partner,' and Other Favorites by Harte, Bret and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. If you like playing Red Dead Redemption, if you enjoyed The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, I recommend “The Outcasts of Poker Flat“, a short story by Bret Harte, published in the late 1800s as the century was coming to a close. This short story was adapted for film in 1919, 1937 and again in 1952. But the version with the highest rating on IMDb is the latest one — a TV movie from 1958.

The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Bret Harte Quizlet

The story is located in Poker Flat, a small Californian community. Certain inhabitants of Poker Flat feel that the community is going down the hill. They have lost a lot of money and the morals of people are thought to be sinking. Consequently a secret committee is elected. This committee decides who will be killed and who expatriated. On November 23, 1850 four people are exiled. The party consists of Duchess, a saloon girl; Mother Shipton, a madam; Uncle Billy, a local drunk and thief; and John Oakhurst, a poker player, who won a lot of money from the people sitting on the secret committee. The four characters get together and leave Poker Flat, heading for a one day’s journey to a nearby camp. After hours of traveling, Oakhurst’s companions get tired, and despite his remonstrances they decide to stop and rest.

Outcasts Of Poker Flat Worksheets

Meanwhile, Oakhurst encounters young runaway couple, Piney Woods and Tom Simons, heading to Poker Flat to get married. Tom Simons, also called “The Innocent” has met Oakhurst before. They played Poker together, and Oakhurst won a great deal of money from him. Afterwards, he told Tom never to play poker again, and returned him his money. As a result of this Tom feels positively towards Oakhurst. He is thrilled to see him, and the young couple decides to spent some time with the group, obviously unaware of the fact that they were exiled for being immoral. Tom leads the group to an old cabin that he had found, and they spend the night. Oakhurst wakes up in the early morning and notices it started to snow. Furthermore, he discovers that Uncle Billy has been up long before him and now is gone with all their horses and mules. The rest of the group has no other choice than to wait for ten days until they run out of provisions. As the days go by, Mother Shipton dies of starvation, as she tries to save food for ‘the child’ - Piney. Oakhurst decides that Tom has to go to get some help and he fixes him some snow shoes. Then he tells the two women he will accompany Tom ‘as far as the canyon’. Duchess and Piney stay in the cabin and when their fire dies they fall asleep hugging each other. They look so peaceful and innocent, that when the “law of Poker Flat” finds them, they are unable to tell which one is the sinner, so they turn away and let them be. As for the last, Oakhurst commits suicide.