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The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Summary

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The short story entitled “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” written by Bret Harte is a story that doesn’t have a very happy ending, but can give some elements of real life to interested readers. The story’s basic plot is that a group of individuals, Mother Shipton, Duchess, and Uncle Billy, are driven from their original group or area. They stumble upon the main character, Mr. Oakhurst, and Piney and Tom “The Innocent” Simson and attempt to travel to the town of Poker Flat, just as the nascent storm originates. Unfortunately, they become snowed-in in the mountain passes of the Sierras and it appears that all of them die except for the fatuous and drunk Uncle Billy and Tom Simson, who may have survived. The reading of this story can be mentally moving …show more content…

Oakhurst says he won’t be traveling with Tom to try and reach Poker Flat for help, but he’ll walk with him out of the camp for a while. This single event determined the fate of the surviving group, because Mr. Oakhurst never intended to come back to the camp. It is revealed at the conclusion of the story that Oakhurst committed suicide. From this, the reader can infer that he never intended to return to the camp to the remaining female companions of the group. With this it was unlikely they would be able to survive if Oakhurst wasn’t there to help. This is important because these actions gave way to the final outcome of the …show more content…

Oakhurst may be mitigated during this event, the strength of Mr. Simson’s and Piney’s could be said to grow. While they were both aware that the chances of either of them surviving was slim at best, the faithful affection they had for one another was enough for Tom to try to reach Poker Flat for help. As Oakhurst told him, “There’s one chance in a hundred to save her yet, but it’s there.” The final scene of Tom and John’s departure confirms any doubts, if there were any, of the tangible love between them. It could be predicted that if Oakhurst hadn’t committed suicide and returned to the Duchess and Piney, the group would have survived a little longer if not rescued, and this would have lessened Piney’s complete faith in Tom, but this argument is not of major importance to the analysis of this one scene

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