The The Outcasts of Poker Flat quotes below are all either spoken by The Duchess or refer to The Duchess. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
Summary
The story takes place in Poker Flat, a small California gold mining community. Certain inhabitants of Poker Flat feel that the community is going downhill. They have lost a lot of money, and worry that people's morals are sinking. Consequently a secret committee is elected. This committee decides who will be killed and who expatriated. One November morning, the stoic John Oakhurst, an avid poker player and the story's protagonist, notices a 'Sabbath lull' in the air on Poker Flat's main street and suspects the town is onto yet another round of exiling. On November 23, 1850 four people are exiled. The group 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. They are instructed not to come back, on pain of death. The four characters get together and leave Poker Flat, heading to the nearby town of Sandy Bar, only a day's journey away but accessible only via a treacherous mountain pass in the Sierra Mountains range. After hours of traveling, Oakhurst’s companions get tired, and despite his remonstrances they decide to stop and rest. Despite Oakhurst's warnings that they do not have enough food to survive, the rest of his party decides it can survive on liquor. Meanwhile, Oakhurst encounters a young runaway couple, Piney Woods and Tom Simons, heading to Poker Flat to get married and seek their fortune. 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 spend 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. Upon waking, Oakhurst realizes that Uncle Billy has stolen off with the group's mules.
Analysis
In keeping with the story's roots in the Regionalism or 'local color' genre, Harte's story focuses on the particularities of one region, which in this case is a gold mining region around the Sierra Mountains in California. That said, Harte also departs significantly from the genre's focus on a region's everyday qualities, instead choosing to set the story in a time of crisis for the town of Poker Flat. Likewise, the story's protagonist, John Oakhurst, is at once a classically wise, stoic cowboy/gambler figure befitting his Wild West setting and a character in crisis himself; not only is he exiled, a disruption of his status quo, but he finds himself in a fatal situation where, unlike in the poker games to which he is accustomed, he cannot win. In these ways, Harte both adopts Regionalism and departs with its conventions, reworking the genre in order to highlight the hypocrisy that rules the otherwise classic Western town of Poker Flat.
The story also relies heavily on Biblical symbolism that positions John Oakhurst as a Christ figure. The narrative begin with the image of two men hanging from the boughs of sycamore trees in a gulch near the town, imagery that naturally calls to mind the two thieves that hung beside Christ during his crucifixion. In fact, the punishment that Oakhurst and his companions endure—exile into the wilderness—is loaded with Biblical allusions, particularly the story of Jesus’ temptation by the devil in the desert and the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. By referencing stories in which Christ (or Christians) suffer unjustly, this imagery implies that John Oakhurst is a martyr, persecuted for sins that he didn’t commit.
In a broad sense, the opening of the story actually functions much like an allegory, as it lends characters names like Tom “the Innocent,' whereas the exiles are earlier referred to as “improper” in the eyes of Poker Flat. Even the names that refer to trees implicitly editorialize the characters’ dramatic situation, as “Piney Woods” and “Oakhurst” refer to the idyllic yet tragic environment in which the characters find themselves. By referring to the pure environment in which the characters inadvertently serve a death sentence, these names automatically function as allegory, as they imply that John Oakhurst and Piney Woods are pure and innocent despite their dramatic situation.
This is heightened by the narrator’s frequent use of hyperbole, which again serves to emphasize the unjust nature of the characters’ situation. For example, the narrator says of Tom and Piney’s kiss that it was “so honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the swaying pines.” Against the backdrop of their unwitting encounter with sentenced criminals, this hyperbole functions to magnify the theme of innocence versus guilt.
The narrator makes heavy use of foreshadowing, as well. The ominous tone with which the story begins does not relax when the town's act of 'frontier justice' is achieved; instead it pervades the story, casting over all the event and actions a sense of the tragedy that will eventually befall the characters. The setting likewise serves to foreshadow the tragic ending of the story by functioning much like a character or divine being by interfering with the characters’ journey in the form of landscape and weather. For example, the red dust of Poker Flat has an eerie, assaulting effect on Oakhurst and can perhaps symbolize the haziness of the truth for the supposedly upright citizens of Poker Flat.
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Why do people judge others by stereotypes? This seems to be a problem from the beginning of mankind. Sometimes, the behaviors of people are good topics for writers. One writer, Bret Harte, wrote about this in the 1800s. One of his short stories, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” deals with changing stereotypes. The short story begins when the “bad” people are kicked out of a mining town called Poker Flat. The people of the town were not really good people, but they judge the others and banished them. Although the archetypal characters are typical, by the end of the story, they have changed.
Bret Harte The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Summary
The hero of the story is Mr. Oakhurst, a gambler. Throughout the story, he displays the typical characteristics of a “hero”, and is always cool, calm and collected. When the “bad” people of Poker Flat are kicked out of town, Mr. Oakhurst takes the role of the leader and protector of the group, which leads readers to believe that he will be the one to save them all and lead them to salvation. Mr. Oakhurst also, at several points, reveals himself to be more of a gentleman than his purpose would suggest.
This is seen in the times when he does not abandon the group when he most likely should, or when he gives Tom Stinson back the money he had won from him. However, although Oakhurst has the stereotypical traits of the “good gambler” and a brave man, the irony is seen when he keeps himself from being a true stereotype by committing suicide. This proves Mr. Oakhurst to be an ultimately weak character in the sense that he kills himself because he can not bear the pain of freezing to death or failing everybody in the group.
The note he leaves behind indicates his life as a gambler and way of thinking in addition to his views on luck and fate. Duchess, a prostitute, is another one of the four individuals expelled from Poker Flat. Throughout the story she is seen as very whiny, annoying and “loose”. As the group of outcasts make their way to Sandy Bar, she complains constantly, and ends up to be the cause of the group to stop short of their destination. Her non stop complaining and whining lead readers to believe that she will most likely be alone by the end of the story.
The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Sparknotes
The irony in this is found when Mr. Oakhurst kisses her before leaving with Tom, and she is left with Piney Woods. The Duchess ends up to be one of the last survivors of the group along with Piney. When the last blizzard hits and blows out the fire, the Duchess and Piney cling to each other for warmth. She ends up dying in the arms of Piney Woods, her last words asking if Piney can pray. This last question invalidates her stereotype of being unholy, and makes her a stronger character than what she was seen as in the beginning.
Outcasts Of Poker Flat Bret
In another case, Piney Woods is seen as a prime example of the stereotypical “Innocent” of the story with her naivety, ingenuousness, and even sleeping habits. She is young and the new wife of Tom Stinson. Throughout the story, her innocence is best seen through her naivety, in cases where she does not question the morals or character of the other women in the group, or when she insists on staying the night with the group. Piney’s innocence leads readers to believe that her character is weak, and that she will not end up to outlive the rest of the group.
The character of Piney starts to develop after Uncle Billy steals the horses, and Piney takes everybody’s mind off of it and draws the women in with her laughing and chattering. Finally, after Tom and Oakhurst both leave near the end of their journey, Piney and the Duchess are the only two left alive. Piney breaks free of her stereotype when the blizzard comes again. The two women put their arms around each other in a last-ditch effort of survival when the fire goes out.
The irony occurs when Piney shows to be the strongest during both of their demise, when the Duchess asks her if she can pray and she replies with “no”. She then proceeds to cradle the Duchess against her chest as they both die together. These actions refute both her innocent stereotype, and the notion that she is nothing more than a weak and childish character. The characters in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” have stereotypes, but they change throughout the story. Perhaps Bret Harte Wrote his story to remind people not to prejudge others.
Outcast Of Poker Flat Characters
Mr. Oakhurst appeared to be a strong leader and the hero of the story, but turned out to be the weakest of the outcasts, his understanding of their situation having encouraged his self-sacrifice. The Duchess was first seen as a hysterical and whiny addition to the group, but in the end showed to want nothing more than forgiveness. The most surprising change of character was the innocent of the story, Piney Woods. At first she was looked upon as a giggly, inexperienced young girl, but by the end of the story, she showed more strength and maturity than most others of the group by supporting and holding the last to die.