John Oakhurst
- ' The Outcasts of Poker Flat ' (1869) is a short story written by author of the American West Bret Harte. An example of naturalism and local color of California during the first half of the nineteenth century, 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' was first published in January 1869 in the magazine Overland Monthly.
- 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' by Bret Harte was adapted for Special English and read by Jim Tedder. Hear or download this story Short Story: ‘The Luck of Roaring Camp' by Bret Harte.
- The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte - Duration: 25:20. Short Stories Cafe 6,903 views. 12 Year Old Boy Humiliates Simon Cowell - Duration: 5:37. LosGranosTV Recommended for you.
The protagonist of the story. He is a professional gambler who is forced out of Poker Flat because he wins all the games and takes the townspeople's money. A typical stoic cowboy figure, he is kind, cool-tempered and a believer in the capriciousness of luck.
The Duchess
A prostitute who is exiled from Poker Flat. She is the drama queen of the group, prone to histrionics in the face of the exiles' hard journey.
See in text (The Outcasts of Poker Flat) The narrator states that the Duchess and Mother Shipton are aware of 'Uncle Billy's rascality' in a way that Tom Simson and Piney Woods are not. Oakhurst has kept the truth from Tom and Piney due to 'some occult,' or mysterious, reason.
Mother Shipton
A prostitute who is also forced out of Poker Flat. She later starves herself to death to make sure that Piney Woods gets to eat.
Uncle Billy
A thief and alcoholic who is initially forced out of town. He takes advantage of the situation, however, when he chooses to steal the exiled group's mules, leaving them stranded in the mountains.
Tom Simson
Referred to as 'the Innocent,' Tom is a young man who runs away with his lover, Piney Woods, to get married. He admires and respects Oakhurst, by whom he was defeated in a game of poker once; following the game, Oakhurst magnanimously returned Tom's lost money to him, forgiving his lack of experience with gambling.
Piney Woods
Tom's lover and fiancée, whose father objected to their marriage. Like Tom, she is understood to be pure and innocent. She dies in the Duchess' arms.
Summary
The story takes place in Poker Flat, a small California gold mining community. Certain inhabitants of Poker Flat feel that the community is going downhill. They have lost a lot of money, and worry that people's morals are sinking. Consequently a secret committee is elected. This committee decides who will be killed and who expatriated. One November morning, the stoic John Oakhurst, an avid poker player and the story's protagonist, notices a 'Sabbath lull' in the air on Poker Flat's main street and suspects the town is onto yet another round of exiling. On November 23, 1850 four people are exiled. The group consists of Duchess, a saloon girl, Mother Shipton, a madam, Uncle Billy, a local drunk and thief, and John Oakhurst, a poker player, who won a lot of money from the people sitting on the secret committee. They are instructed not to come back, on pain of death. The four characters get together and leave Poker Flat, heading to the nearby town of Sandy Bar, only a day's journey away but accessible only via a treacherous mountain pass in the Sierra Mountains range. After hours of traveling, Oakhurst's companions get tired, and despite his remonstrances they decide to stop and rest. Despite Oakhurst's warnings that they do not have enough food to survive, the rest of his party decides it can survive on liquor. Meanwhile, Oakhurst encounters a young runaway couple, Piney Woods and Tom Simons, heading to Poker Flat to get married and seek their fortune. Tom Simons, also called 'The Innocent,' has met Oakhurst before. They played Poker together, and Oakhurst won a great deal of money from him. Afterwards, he told Tom never to play poker again, and returned him his money. As a result of this Tom feels positively towards Oakhurst. He is thrilled to see him, and the young couple decides to spend some time with the group, obviously unaware of the fact that they were exiled for being immoral. Tom leads the group to an old cabin that he had found, and they spend the night. Upon waking, Oakhurst realizes that Uncle Billy has stolen off with the group's mules.
Analysis
In keeping with the story's roots in the Regionalism or 'local color' genre, Harte's story focuses on the particularities of one region, which in this case is a gold mining region around the Sierra Mountains in California. That said, Harte also departs significantly from the genre's focus on a region's everyday qualities, instead choosing to set the story in a time of crisis for the town of Poker Flat. Likewise, the story's protagonist, John Oakhurst, is at once a classically wise, stoic cowboy/gambler figure befitting his Wild West setting and a character in crisis himself; not only is he exiled, a disruption of his status quo, but he finds himself in a fatal situation where, unlike in the poker games to which he is accustomed, he cannot win. In these ways, Harte both adopts Regionalism and departs with its conventions, reworking the genre in order to highlight the hypocrisy that rules the otherwise classic Western town of Poker Flat.
The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Summary Shmoop
Tom Simson
Referred to as 'the Innocent,' Tom is a young man who runs away with his lover, Piney Woods, to get married. He admires and respects Oakhurst, by whom he was defeated in a game of poker once; following the game, Oakhurst magnanimously returned Tom's lost money to him, forgiving his lack of experience with gambling.
Piney Woods
Tom's lover and fiancée, whose father objected to their marriage. Like Tom, she is understood to be pure and innocent. She dies in the Duchess' arms.
Summary
The story takes place in Poker Flat, a small California gold mining community. Certain inhabitants of Poker Flat feel that the community is going downhill. They have lost a lot of money, and worry that people's morals are sinking. Consequently a secret committee is elected. This committee decides who will be killed and who expatriated. One November morning, the stoic John Oakhurst, an avid poker player and the story's protagonist, notices a 'Sabbath lull' in the air on Poker Flat's main street and suspects the town is onto yet another round of exiling. On November 23, 1850 four people are exiled. The group consists of Duchess, a saloon girl, Mother Shipton, a madam, Uncle Billy, a local drunk and thief, and John Oakhurst, a poker player, who won a lot of money from the people sitting on the secret committee. They are instructed not to come back, on pain of death. The four characters get together and leave Poker Flat, heading to the nearby town of Sandy Bar, only a day's journey away but accessible only via a treacherous mountain pass in the Sierra Mountains range. After hours of traveling, Oakhurst's companions get tired, and despite his remonstrances they decide to stop and rest. Despite Oakhurst's warnings that they do not have enough food to survive, the rest of his party decides it can survive on liquor. Meanwhile, Oakhurst encounters a young runaway couple, Piney Woods and Tom Simons, heading to Poker Flat to get married and seek their fortune. Tom Simons, also called 'The Innocent,' has met Oakhurst before. They played Poker together, and Oakhurst won a great deal of money from him. Afterwards, he told Tom never to play poker again, and returned him his money. As a result of this Tom feels positively towards Oakhurst. He is thrilled to see him, and the young couple decides to spend some time with the group, obviously unaware of the fact that they were exiled for being immoral. Tom leads the group to an old cabin that he had found, and they spend the night. Upon waking, Oakhurst realizes that Uncle Billy has stolen off with the group's mules.
Analysis
In keeping with the story's roots in the Regionalism or 'local color' genre, Harte's story focuses on the particularities of one region, which in this case is a gold mining region around the Sierra Mountains in California. That said, Harte also departs significantly from the genre's focus on a region's everyday qualities, instead choosing to set the story in a time of crisis for the town of Poker Flat. Likewise, the story's protagonist, John Oakhurst, is at once a classically wise, stoic cowboy/gambler figure befitting his Wild West setting and a character in crisis himself; not only is he exiled, a disruption of his status quo, but he finds himself in a fatal situation where, unlike in the poker games to which he is accustomed, he cannot win. In these ways, Harte both adopts Regionalism and departs with its conventions, reworking the genre in order to highlight the hypocrisy that rules the otherwise classic Western town of Poker Flat.
The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Summary Shmoop
The story also relies heavily on Biblical symbolism that positions John Oakhurst as a Christ figure. The narrative begin with the image of two men hanging from the boughs of sycamore trees in a gulch near the town, imagery that naturally calls to mind the two thieves that hung beside Christ during his crucifixion. In fact, the punishment that Oakhurst and his companions endure—exile into the wilderness—is loaded with Biblical allusions, particularly the story of Jesus' temptation by the devil in the desert and the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. By referencing stories in which Christ (or Christians) suffer unjustly, this imagery implies that John Oakhurst is a martyr, persecuted for sins that he didn't commit.
In a broad sense, the opening of the story actually functions much like an allegory, as it lends characters names like Tom 'the Innocent,' whereas the exiles are earlier referred to as 'improper' in the eyes of Poker Flat. Even the names that refer to trees implicitly editorialize the characters' dramatic situation, as 'Piney Woods' and 'Oakhurst' refer to the idyllic yet tragic environment in which the characters find themselves. By referring to the pure environment in which the characters inadvertently serve a death sentence, these names automatically function as allegory, as they imply that John Oakhurst and Piney Woods are pure and innocent despite their dramatic situation.
This is heightened by the narrator's frequent use of hyperbole, which again serves to emphasize the unjust nature of the characters' situation. For example, the narrator says of Tom and Piney's kiss that it was 'so honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the swaying pines.' Against the backdrop of their unwitting encounter with sentenced criminals, this hyperbole functions to magnify the theme of innocence versus guilt.
Chains Summary Shmoop
The narrator makes heavy use of foreshadowing, as well. The ominous tone with which the story begins does not relax when the town's act of 'frontier justice' is achieved; instead it pervades the story, casting over all the event and actions a sense of the tragedy that will eventually befall the characters. The setting likewise serves to foreshadow the tragic ending of the story by functioning much like a character or divine being by interfering with the characters' journey in the form of landscape and weather. For example, the red dust of Poker Flat has an eerie, assaulting effect on Oakhurst and can perhaps symbolize the haziness of the truth for the supposedly upright citizens of Poker Flat.
