Discussion Topic
Outcasts' Expulsion in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"
Summary:
In Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," the town expels four individuals deemed undesirable by a secret committee aiming to cleanse the community. The outcasts include John Oakhurst, a successful gambler; the Duchess and Mother Shipton, both prostitutes; and Uncle Billy, a drunkard and thief. The town's recent losses prompted this moral crackdown, but the expulsions reveal the town's hypocrisy, as these outcasts, despite their reputations, exhibit kindness and selflessness.
Why are the outcasts expelled from 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 prostitute; therefore, she is deemed a seedy character that should be expelled from the town.
John Oakhurst is a professional gambler. By all indications, he is a calm and impassive gentleman. My guess is that he won his poker games one time too many, and the losers wanted him gone.
Mother Shipton is an undesirable, because she is more than likely the madam of Duchess. Whether or not that is true can be debated, but Mother Shipton is cast out because of her close association with a known prostitute.
Uncle Billy is a confirmed drunk. He's a suspected thief too, but what is absolutely true is that he is...
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selfish to the core. He escaped the coming storm and took the group's horses and supplies.
Why does Poker Flat banish members in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte?
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.
How the outcasts are forced to leave Poker Flat is one of the great ironies of the story.
[The town] had lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper persons.
A gambler, a drunkard, a madam and a prostitute are all banished from the town because Poker Flat is a God-fearing, Christian town (note the use of the word Sabbath twice in the opening paragraph) and cannot abide such people. There are several problems with this action.
First, this is a reaction to a series of events, not any kind of moral principle. Unti the recent acts of lawlessness, they were, apparently, perfectly content to have all four of these people here in town.
Second, this action is just as lawless as anything that had already been done in town.
Third, there is no causality between the thefts, stealing, or death and these four people.
Finally, the decision is made by a "secret committee." This kind of anonymity allows people to do all kinds of things without being held accountable.
To add to the hypocrisy of the "Christian" act of ridding the town of these "undesirables," the town sends them off completely unequipped and unprovisioned for a winter in the mountains.
In short, forcing these outcasts to leave Poker Flat may make the town feel safer, which is the reason they gave for expelling them; however, there is no demonstrable evidence that this will happen (except, we learn later, in the case of the drunkard who probably was responsible for the thefts). In fact, we have evidence, as the story progresses, that three of these people are willing to sacrifice for others and have kind and generous hearts, despite their professions.
In order to answer this question, you need to make sure that you read the story carefully. Is the answer clearly spelled out in the story by what characters say or do - or what the narrator tells the reader? If the answer isn't clearly spelled out, then you must rely on inference and consider the clues in the story that help you answer the question.
Who are the four outcasts in Bret Harte's "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 for that to happen.
The Duchess is a prostitute in town, and that obviously not the kind of upstanding citizen the people of this town want to have around. She is a bit of a whiner, but when it matters (as she and Piney are dying) she is compassionate and caring.
John Oakhurst is a gambler, and that is certainly a profession which cannot be condoned by the people of a Christian town--even if the town's name does have the word "poker" in it. We learn that he, too, is a kind and compassionate person, as demonstrated by his earlier association with the Innocent. He is "the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat." When it matters, though, he is kind and caring.
Every indication is that Mother Shipton is the town madame, so it is not surprising that the town wants to expel her. Despite her profession, she is a woman of great dignity and sacrifices herself so that someone younger and more innocent (Piney) can live. When it matters, she is kind and caring.
Uncle Billy is the rapscallion of the group, a drunkard and a thief. He ends up stealing the groups horses and some of their food; his selfish actions cause the others to lose their lives. He is a man no one wants around.
In short, three of the four "undesirables" are, perhaps aside from their professions, the kind of moral and upstanding people a town would want in its citizenry--unlike the townspeople who kicked the outcasts out, in the cold, right before winter, to travel through the mountains, without enough supplies.
Who expels the outcast in Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"?
The secret committee of townsfolk are a self-appointed group of moral guardians who've taken it upon themselves to rid Poker Flat of all manner of degenerates and undesirables. Due to the ubiquitous presence of saloons, bordellos, and other dens of iniquity in Western mining towns, strenuous efforts were periodically made to make such towns more wholesome places. And that's what's happening in Poker Flat. The members of the secret committee want to clean up the town, removing all those people they deem to have lowered the tone of the place through their nefarious activities.
There's more than an element of hypocrisy in all of this. The likes of Oakhurst, the professional gambler, and Mother Shipton and the Duchess—notorious prostitutes—could only have continued their disreputable trades if there'd been a steady demand for what they were offering, whether it was high-stakes poker games or illicit sex. The very fact that Oakhurst, Mother Shipton, and the Duchess have been able to thrive in Poker Flat tells you that this is nowhere near as moral, fine, and respectable a town as the latter-day Puritans on the secret committee would have you believe.
The citizenry of Poker Flat had a subset, that being the secret committee that was dedicated to ridding Poker Flat of undesirable personages. Some persons were removed "permanently" by way of a rope and tall tree branch. Others were made outcasts by the secret committee and escorted out of town by "a body of armed men."
The main character, and therefore the main outcast, was Mr. Oakhurst, a gambler who was acquainted with the powers "Fate." He had narrowly avoided being another occupant of the tree branch. The other outcasts, who were escorted out along with Mr. Oakhurst, were Mother Shipton, Duchess and Uncle Billy.