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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The obvious answer to this question would be Mr. Oakhurst. He's the one who leads the group out of Poker Flat and into the mountains, hoping to speed them along before the weather hits. He's...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Clearly a dynamic character, Mother Shipton transforms from a hardened, self-centered female in a profession of "impropriety" to an altruistic, tender, and motherly woman. Ironically named Mother...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Several of the characters could be considered the most admirable in the story. It could be argued that Oakhurst is the most admirable because of his "philosophical calmness." Oakhurst has the...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The travelers who come through the camp, Tom Simson, otherwise known as the "Innocent," and Piney Woods, with whom Tom has run away, stay with the outcasts from Poker Flat for a week. When the...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
First, one has to consider the environment in which this story takes place: set in the Old West around the time of the Gold Rush, towns like Poker Flat would have been places of lawlessness, with...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Readers know the residents of Poker Flat are hypocritical fairly early on in the story. We are told Mr. Oakhurst notices a moral shift in the town from the previous day. We are not told what kind...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Duchess, Piney, Oakhurst, and Tom are all that are left of the outcasts late in the story. Uncle Billy ran off with the horses many days prior, and Mother Shipton starved herself to death, so that...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
After a secret committee has decided to rid Poker Flat of its wickedness, several of the residents find themselves abruptly cast out by an armed escort. The banished residents react in different...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
"They'll find out the truth about us all when they find out anything," he added, significantly, "and there's no good frightening them now." John Oakhurst tells Mother Shipton and Duchess to keep...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Tom and Piney bring out the best in three of the outcasts, because Piney and Tom are innocent and completely clueless. Tom believes that Oakhurst is a good man, because Oakhurst gave back to Tom...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Mr. Oakhurst is the leader of the party from the beginning. In fact, he is the only sober one in the party of four, and he advises them that Sandy Bar is "distant a day’s severe travel" from...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Culture can be defined as the total knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, and attitudes, of a group of people. Probably the best example of culture that I can think of in "The Outcasts of Poker...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Piney Woods and Tom Simpson are a young and in love couple in the short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flats." They are on their way to Poker Flat to elope. In addition to their romantic attraction...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Exposition refers to the part of the story where the author gives background information, usually about the setting and characters. Exposition usually comes close to the beginning of a story, but...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The title, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," is referencing the four characters who have been thrown out of the town of Poker Flat. Apparently the town of Poker Flat is a beacon of morality, because...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
When the outcasts are first kicked out of Poker Flat, Bret Harte notes, "The road to Sandy Bar...lay over a steep mountain range. It was distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced season,...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Mr. Oakhurst thinks that making camp on the way to Sandy Bar is a bad idea because their exodus from Poker Flat is made at an inopportune time, in the stare of winter. For, the journey to Sandy Bar...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The gambler, Mr. Oakhurst, is banished to the outskirts of the Poker Flat, a Californian settlement. He is not hanged because he does not cheat at cards, and those who won from Oakhurst have enough...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The shortest answer possible to your question is this: all but two of the travelers die at the camp. The travelers that wind up at the camp are John Oakhurst, Mother Shipton, Duchess, Tom Simson,...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
In the third paragraph of the story, Bret Harte states, "A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper persons." These "improper persons" include Mr. John Oakhurst, a gambler;...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The rescue party first comes upon the cabin where the outcasts had been snow-bound at the end of the story. There, they find the Dutchess and Piney Woods, where the author states, "you could...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Mr. Oakhurst is a scapegoat, a person who bears the sins of the rest of the town. Because the town had recently lost a lot of money, and because Mr. Oakhurst is a good gambler (he wins a lot of...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The outcasts are thrown out of the town of Poker Flat because they are the undesirables of the town. Duchess, despite what her name implies, is not high class royalty in any way. She is the town...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte was first published in January 1869. It reflects the ongoing problems and conflicts in western gold rush and mining towns. The basic heritage of such...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" is set in a typical Western town that sprang up during the Gold Rush of 1849. Physically, Bret Harte describes "the red dust of Poker Flat" that Mr. Oakhurst wipes...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Uncle Billy probably was plotting against the other outcasts from the moment they were banished. The story doesn't specifically indicate this, but the reader knows that Uncle Billy should not be...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Many of the citizens of Poker Flat are hypocritical because it is only after the townspeople have a change of luck and monetary status that they become moral. After having "suffered the loss of...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
John Oakhurst, the gambler, is called “both the strongest and the weakest of the Outcasts of Poker Flat.” To understand why, one must look back to the beginning of the story, when Oakhurst left...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The original group that leaves Poker Flat includes Mr. John Oakhurst, a gambler; Uncle Billy, a thief and drunk; the Duchess, a prostitute; and Mother Shipton, a witch. All of these characters are...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
In my opinion, the two most immediate dangers to the outcasts are exposure and lack of food. Oakhurst, the Duchess, Mother Shipton, and Uncle Billy are thrown out of Poker Flats because they are...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Poker Flat is a small town in California. On November 23, 1850, a secret town council had decided to get rid of the people they considered immoral. John Oakhurst, who is a great poker player, the...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Bret Harte's western story is certainly not a typical one. His experiences provided the material for many of his stories and helped to form the unsentimental and often cynical and even pessimistic...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Bret Harte’s short story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, displays the good, the bad, and the exceedingly judgmental within the confines of its seven pages. In much literature of the Western genre,...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
When a question asks whether an action is right or wrong, the answer is generally going to be subjective. That means, of course, that two people who read the same story might have different answers...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The settings of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" have a decided affect upon the plot and characterization; in fact, it is the most important element of the short story. 1. Poker Flat is a town that is...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The word "anathema" is found in the final sentence of paragraph seven of Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flats": "Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping anathema." Anathema refers...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
In "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," Bret Harte's primary point concerns judging people based on their hearts and character rather than their outward appearances or, in this case, their professions....
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The good, upstanding Christian people of Poker Flat are determined to clean up their town in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte. They decide that there are four people who must go in order...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
In "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte, the fine, upstanding Christian citizens of Poker Flat have a problem. Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately suffered the loss of several...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
As he gazed at his recumbent fellow exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah trade, his habits of life, his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. After having been exiled...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Bret Harte’s “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” portrays six unique characters who through fate are penned together to try to survive a winter blizzard. Four of the characters have been thrown out...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The story starts off in the little town of Poker Flat. The mood of the setting is ominously quiet. The first paragraph contains two sentences intended to establish this mood: . . . he [Oakhurst]...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
This statement is characteristic of Bret Harte's tongue-in-cheek, facetious writing. He is referring to the two female "outcasts" of Poker Flat who are called Duchess and Mother Shipton. Both of...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
A wave of lawlessness had recently hit Poker Flat, and a secret committee of concerned citizens was established to deal with the situation. The crimes included horse theft (a hanging offense),...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The author gives several clues to the general spirit of the residents of Poker Flat. Most significantly, the last sentence of the first paragraph states explicitly: There was a Sabbath lull in the...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The Sierra Nevada Mountains are unforgiving in the winter. This is the setting of the story “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” by Bret Harte. This poignant story involves a motley group of people...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
It is certainly in character for the gambler, John Oakhurst, to be reticent about revealing what he considers only the most necessary information. So, in this sense, it is "right" as then the story...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The greatest irony of Bret Harte's story is not that the outcasts reveal sterling qualities, but that those who banish them are less than virtuous. After the "body of armed men accompanied the...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
The term Regionalism usually refers to the sketch or short story that focuses on specific features of a particular region. These features of a region are often type characters, dialects, history,...
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The Outcasts of Poker Flat
It is interesting to note that Bret Harte launched the career of the great humorist Mark Twain, especially in light of the irony that contemporary readers of his failed to find the humor in his...