Bret Harte 1836 1902 Outcasts of Poker Flats

Bret Harte 1836 - 1902 Outcasts of Poker Flats

Bret Harte • First writer after the Civil War to win a large following in the United States • Wrote stories about the West • Called “the American Dickens” • Editors of the Atlantic Monthly offered him $10, 000 for exclusive rights to whatever he wrote for a year • Portrayed the West as • A barbaric land with half-civilized, immoral people • An American Eden where dreams could be realized • Regarded as the father of the modern short story

Outcasts of Poker Flats • The Outcasts • • Duchess, a saloon girl Mother Shipton, a madam Uncle Billy, a local drunk and thief John Oakhurst, a poker player • Runaway couple: Piney Woods and Tom Simons

Questions • What do we learn about the moral code of the Old West? • It’s subject to selfish whims • Why do Mother Shipton and the Duchess make such efforts to keep Piney ignorant of the truth about themselves? • They are awed and shamed by Piney’s virtuous innocence, and they want her to think of them as virtuous • Displayed often as the strongest member of the group, Oakhurst was also portrayed as the weakest member of the group the end. How? • Despite his good qualities, he was unable to make more of himself than a gambler • He resorts to suicide rather than trying to survive • How is the story a regionalist text? • Focuses on the characters and customs of a specific region, the wild west