ipl-logo

Stereotypes In The Outcasts Of Poker Flat By Bret Harte

1049 Words5 Pages

Bret Harte an American writer known for his touch of local color, settings of the California gold rush and his character stereotypes such as “the grizzled prospector, the dance-hall girl with a heart of gold, and the smooth gambler” (505) in his literary works. Some of these portrayals of the west so famous that they have long endured past the gold rush to modern culture (505). These character stereotypes These styles Harte developed shine through in many of his short stories such as “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”, “The Luck of Roaring Camp”, and “The Idyll of Red Gulch”. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” is a short story about a group of outcasts whom are said to be tainting the town of poker flat with their behavior. Upon their banishment they …show more content…

The “Outcasts” consisted of a professional poker player, "John Oakhurst", "The Duchess", a saloon girl; "Mother Shipton", a madam; and "Uncle Billy", the town drunk and a suspected robber. By directly characterizing each of the outcasts using third person narration, I now know many things about them, the same level of understanding could not be met with the use of first or second person due to the fact that the narrator himself indirectly characterizes “The Outcast” helping us infer and understand more about them. Just by knowing that Uncle Billy …show more content…

Since the camp had started to care of the child the mines have flown gold and luck was at an all time high until a terrible storm hits and the town and all its luck is gone including the child may he rest in peace. What really shines through in this story is the use of comic relief to keep the tone of the story light and fun rather than sad. In a story where much tragedy strikes you need a way to keep it from becoming a sad and gloomy tale. This is where Harte's expertly crafted comic relief comes in. Right after the announcement that Cherokee Sal had died, and the men are speculating whether or not the child may live, the narrator claims that “the only other being of Sal's sex and maternal condition in the settlement was an ass” (36). This is a great use of comic relief due to the seriousness of the question at hand, the life of a child, which is then answered by a suggestion that they leave all the duties of a mother to a female

Show More
Related

The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Compare And Contrast

832 Words | 4 Pages

A California town, outcasts, cheaters, a battle against nature and jumping frogs… that might sound like the premise for an epic novel, but these are a mix of elements from two separate short stories, The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte and The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain. Harte’s story follows John Oakhurst, a professional gambler, who has become an outcast in the small California town of Poker Flats during the gold rush. His success as a gambler leads to a negative reputation and he is forced to leave the town along with a band of outcasts. A few conflicts arise, but none so severe as the blizzard that strikes them while they’re in the mountains. Oakhurst’s life of gambling success is long gone and all the bad luck he encounters leads him to suicide (Harte 674-684).

Read More

In Cold Blood Insider

485 Words | 2 Pages

Through the Eyes of the Insiders In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the author displays how the lives of the people who live in Holocomb are severely contrast than the lives of Dick and Perry. Capote has a way of letting the readers know by his text who is telling their story from their view, whether its insiders from Holocomb, including its citizens and law enforcement or Dick and Perry or their parents or relatives. It is obvious to realize who is telling their story by who they say they are and the way they speak. The people of Holocomb tend to speak in a way that is of concern and question and unknowingly hostile towards Dick and Perry.

Read More

Theme Of Two Places In Their Eyes Were Watching God

573 Words | 3 Pages

Eatonville is a place of repression, what with how Janie worked in the shop, and how gossip ran rampant through the town if deliberation occurred. Eatonville is not a negative and antagonistic place, but simply a place of high standards, which did not suit the independent nature of Janie Crawford. Opposing this place, the rural location known as “The Muck” has almost entirely different motifs. The Everglades was home to farmers and common workmen, not the high-class citizens of Eatonville. People were also free to come as they were, and be treated equally.

Read More

Stereotypes In We Are There By Tommy Orange

953 Words | 4 Pages

The novel, “There There” by Tommy Orange follows the stories of a plethora of characters, sharing many unique experiences with the readers. Themes of gender, identity, community, race, and assimilation can be seen throughout these stories, as the characters experience them firsthand. The journeys these characters experience connect these themes to the terms culture, multiracial person, and stereotype through showcasing the impact that these terms have on the characters and their stories. Culture is a term referring to the practices, arts, and achievements of a nation or group of people. Strong traces of culture can be seen throughout the novel, as the characters all have unique experiences with the same culture.

Read More

Why We Should In Cold Blood Be Banned

1350 Words | 6 Pages

One of the main characters, Perry Smith, had a childhood ruined by his mother’s addiction to multiple substances, including alcohol, as well as witnessing his father physically abuse his mother. When Perry’s father, Tex, was writing to the Parole Board to help get him out on parole, Tex wrote that “…liquor blurred the face, swollen the figure of the once sinewy, limber Cherokee girl… honed her tongue to the wickedest point, so dissolved in her self-respect that generally she did not bother to ask the names of the stevedores and trolley car conductors and such persons who accepted what she offered without charge…” (Capote 127). The mother of Perry, Flo, turned to alcohol and promiscuity when the father started to abuse Flo. Smith would become used to the constant flow of strange men in and out of the house.

Read More

Henry James The Funeral Diction

617 Words | 3 Pages

Particularly, the speaker profiles Mr. Odger as a man engaged in “the useful profession of shoemaker” who “knocked in vain at the door that opens but to golden keys.” Here he obliquely patronizes Mr. Odger through the implication that the lower class should adhere to the bounds of their existing social status. Thus, the narrator retains a parochial view of the poor: any attempt on their behalf to transcend social hierarchy is a ludicrous notion. Following the narrator’s escape from the crowd into a hansom cab, he describes himself witnessing the affair as if “from a box at a play.” Notably, box seats are reserved for the opulent who can afford the luxury of sitting above the general audience.

Read More

Examples Of Outsiders In Jane Eyre

988 Words | 4 Pages

Growing up as a Buddhist Chinese Malaysian in an increasingly Islamic Malay-centric Malaysia, I oftentimes feel like an outsider. Consequently, I was drawn to the outsiders and the social Other in literature during my undergraduate years in NCCU. The presence of the Other and the outsider can be traced from ancient Greek dramas to modern literature, from Medea to the Underground Man.

Read More

Compare And Contrast A Rose For Emily And A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1094 Words | 5 Pages

The short stories, "A Good man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Conner and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner are rather horrifying; one tale is about a grandmother and her family brutally murdered by a coldhearted killer, and the other tale is about a lady who murders her lover and then sleeps beside his rotting body. Not only have O'Conner and Faulkner created similar plots in their respective stories, both authors criticize the Southern corruption through the distortion of the characters' world view of reality. The use of irony in the character's social statuses and their miserable lives illustrate the authors' criticism of the Southern social structure. The stories include insights into the families of the old south, and the older class system of

Read More

The Running Man Character Analysis

905 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel The Running Man by Michael Gerard Bauer, the author captures the experiences of a marginalised character, Tom Leyton. The use of the silkworm metaphor invites the audience to uncover the dark secrets of Tom Leyton 's mysterious past. The introduction of the character Joseph Davidson provides the author with a catalyst to open the metaphor of the silkworm and take the reader on a journey to understand the life experiences of Tom Leyton. Joseph Davidson, who is portrayed as someone with poor self esteem is also described as an outsider. The running man is used by the author to reveal the experiences of Joseph Davidson and demonstrate his growth of becoming less marginalised throughout the novel.

Read More

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Literary Analysis Essay

1409 Words | 6 Pages

Flannery O’Connor uses style, tone, and character to tell the story of a family and a band of misfits as they struggle with good over evil in the Southern Gothic short story ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). The style and tone of the characters are depicted in a way that makes it difficult to feel compassion or sympathy for them. The figurative language and style used by the author depicts characters with casual, informal, and extreme Southern stereotypes, diction and attitudes. The tone of the story is ironic in regard to both the characters and plot. O’Connor uses colorful language to describe the characters of the story in a way that allows the reader to vividly see the characters as cartoon like, grotesque, and exaggerated.

Read More

The Luck Of Roaring Camp Analysis Essay

775 Words | 4 Pages

Whether it is the “rude sepulture” for the mother’s funeral, the naming of the infant “call him Luck and start him fair”, his feeding, the idea of adoption quickly rejected because “them fellows at Red Dog would swap it”, and the baptism that starts quite satirically but ends up being rather serious and when the name of God is pronounced “otherwise than profanity”, life in Roaring Camp is definitively different from what it used to be. The irreverence exposed sometimes is quickly turned into an apology to the advantage of the baby, whether when it is time to choose his name or baptize him: “It’s better (…) to take a fresh deal all round.” Even at the end, when they are looking for their baby after he has disappeared in the flood, his body is saved by Kentuck, himself “cruelly crushed and bruised” but not giving up their Luck. Even dead, the baby is their hope in the afterlife as Kentuck says “he’s a taking me with

Read More

Stereotypes In Catcher In The Rye

1365 Words | 6 Pages

It takes the average person under a minute to compose an opinion about someone they recently encountered. This opinion will be the image inside your head until you genuinely get to understand that person., but judgement with still occur because humans do this for an eccentric reason. People have stereotypes that go along with judging through age class, for example, adults stereotype judging teenagers as persistently staring at their phones all day, rarely interacting with anyone face to face. This exhibits irony; children and teenagers perceive their parents to be infallible. There are many differences between adults and teens.

Read More

Examples Of Stereotypes In The Outsiders

1029 Words | 5 Pages

Lulu Asselstine Mrs. Olsen LA 8 5 November, 2017 Stereotypes and Perspectives When looking at a bunch of bananas in a grocery store, people tend to choose the perfect spotless bananas, since stereotypically food that is perfect looking, with no flaws, taste better. However, people soon realize that when you start to eat bananas that have more spots and are imperfect they turn out to be sweeter and better. This connects to stereotypes because people who follow stereotyped will always eat the perfect bananas; however, people who choose to look through another perspective can realize that the imperfect bananas are better. This connects to The Outsiders because Ponyboy realizes this after he talks with two Socs, kids from a rival group named Randy and Cherry. In The Outsiders, S.E Hinton presents the idea that teenagers can break through stereotypes if they look at life through another perspective; as shown in the book when Ponyboy starts to talk to Cherry and Randy and realizes the stereotypes about them are false.

Read More

The Luck Of Roaring Camp Analysis

489 Words | 2 Pages

“The only sure thing about luck is that it will change,” Bret Harte’s life can be described with these eleven words, he lived a life full of ups and downs while cementing his status as an important author in American history. Harte main works came in the realism period where works focused on how life really was and didn 't try to romanticize life. Moving to California during the end period of the gold rush and starting to write during the realist period shaped Harte 's writing into what it would later become. Harte moved to California in 1853 and settled as a miner in Arcata. The way that Harte wrote his dialogue was influenced by the miner dialect he picked up on while living here.

Read More

Stereotypes In The Outsiders

745 Words | 3 Pages

Stereotyping is an issue that affects all ages, genders, and races. Not all stereotypes are bad, but when you maliciously stereotype it becomes a problem. In S.E. Hinton’s young adult novel The Outsiders, stereotyping is a significant issue. There are two gangs in this novel, the “greasers”, and the “Socs”. The greasers live on the east side and are known as “hoods”.

Read More

More about Stereotypes In The Outcasts Of Poker Flat By Bret Harte

Related Topics

Open Document