The Outcasts of Poker Flat

The short answer to your question is that most of them die. Uncle Billy runs off with the mules and supplies the first night, and Tom Simson walks back to Poker Flat for help on a pair of...

Redemption is an important theme in the story. As the title implies, the characters are outcasts, expelled from so-called respectable society by its self-appointed moral guardians. Yet in the midst...

The word "Sabbath" is used interchangeably with "Sunday" (although they are actually different). The word "lull" means a sleepy, soothing calm. So "Sabbath lull" means the kind of sleepy, soothing...

The last description of John Oakhurst in the story is "he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat." The first description is that he is a gambler. When...

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]...

While all of the characters of Bret Harte's "Outcasts of Poker Flat" easily engage the reader's sympathy, with the exception of the treacherous Uncle Billy, it's difficult not to feel that the...

John Oakhurst realizes that the theft of the mules and provisions by Uncle Billy is a death sentence for the other outcasts. With the blizzard coming and no time or form of transportation for the...

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...

At the beginning of the story, a notorious gambler named Mr. John Oakhurst, two prostitutes, and a thief/alcoholic named Uncle Billy are banished from the lawless town of Poker Flat. As the four...

Uncle Billy is not affected by Tom and Piney because he is the worst of the lot. He is the only one among them who took from people what they were not willing to give and he was a drunkard. John...

After the selfish, malevolent Uncle Billy steals the party's supplies and absconds with their horses, John Oakhurst takes careful inventory of their remaining rations and discovers that they only...

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...

When night falls after Mother Shipton's burial and Tom Simson's departure for Poker Flats, the point in the plot of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" that creates the greatest intensity and suspense...

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...

This story is depressing. The main reason for that is because the conflicts do not get resolved in any way that I would say leads to a happy ending. Readers are introduced to the conflict of man...

At the beginning of the story, a notorious gambler named Mr. John Oakhurst is preparing to leave Poker Flat after a secret committee has decided to rid the town of "improper persons." Recently,...

The central conflict in the short story revolves around the outcasts, who are escorted to the edge of town and warned not to return. The town has decided to purify itself of undesirables, people...

At the beginning of the story, the Duchess is portrayed as a sinful prostitute, who is exiled from Poker Flat along with John Oakhurst, Mother Shipton, and Uncle Billy. On their journey from Poker...

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....

Billy is exiled from Poker Flat for being a drunken nuisance and a suspected thief. The women are expelled for prostitution, and Oakhurst's "crime" is that he is a little too successful at poker...

I would generally argue against John Oakhurst being considered heroic; however, if you have to give support to him being a hero character, I would concentrate on his ability to quickly analyze a...

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...

The stoic gambler John Oakhurst shows the most class of all the members of the party in Bret Harte's short story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." He alone remains silent when the group is forced out...

Much like some of Mark Twain's narratives, Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" is a Western story which employs regionalisms, expressions that are distinctly Western. In addition, he wrily...

"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" could have more than a single thesis about it. A thesis is a statement that makes an argument about something. A thesis could make an argument about a writer's writing...

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...

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...

Tom Simson and Piney Woods show up about halfway through the story. Tom quickly and a bit shyly explains why he and Piney are there, and Tom is quite excited by what he thinks is good fortune to...

One way to begin an analysis of a character is to start with the way that an author characterizes a particular character. Most authors will use a mixture of direct and indirect characterization....

Two of the most important symbols in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" are the town of Poker Flat itself and the group of "objectionable characters" that it sends out into the wilderness. These two...

Irony involves a statement or situation in which things are not as they seem to be. In Bret Harte's story, the outcasts are not what they seem to be and the "secret committee" is not what it seems...

The classic short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte tells of four people who are exiled from the town of Poker Flat because of their supposed immorality. On their journey to safety...

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...

Gambler John Oakhurst is the most intelligent of the "Outcasts of Poker Flat." Well-dressed, with a "handsome face," Oakhurst is a "cooly desperate" man who has been exiled from the town because of...

The heroism displayed by a number of characters in the story often surprises us. The protagonist, John Oakhurst, appears to have all the characteristics of a conventional hero, and yet when the...

In the short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte, four of the town's residents are banished for supposed immoral behavior, forcing them to hike over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to...

Throughout the Bret Harte story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," there are metaphors about cards that used by Mr. Oakhurst. For one, he hides the cards when the situation worsens. Then, he tells...

This is a short story that very interestingly seems to blur the boundaries between discrete categories such as "good" and "bad" and "moral" and "corrupt." This is most clearly shown in the fate of...

One of the first events is the expulsion from Poker Flats of the outcasts. Then, after their first night in the mountains, Uncle Billy, one of the outcasts steals the group's meager provisions...

At heart, the gambler John Oakhurst, the main character in Bret Harte's short story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," is an old softy. He is an honorable man with sympathetic leanings toward those...

Poker Flat has a reputation of being a rather lawless, ungovernable settlement where criminals, gamblers, and prostitutes frequent and make their living. However, Poker Flat has recently...

I don't know that John Oakhurst really changed all that much during "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." Oakhurst was a different kind of gambler: Although he was always cool and confident, he also had a...

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...

There are four main outcasts in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” who end up dying or disappearing throughout the story. The first outcast to go is Uncle Billy. On the group’s first night outside of...

In Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," certain disreputable characters are told to leave town and are "forbidden to return at peril of their lives." With ironic humor, Harte describes the...

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...