Meghan Honaker

Critical Review

11/9/99

Bret Harte was born in 1838 in Albany, New York. A few years later in 1854 his family then moved to California. After holding many different jobs, he was considered to be a genius for his writing talents. He began working for a printing press where he was the express messenger. This is where he began to have a love for writing about the everyday lives of the people around him. Most of the people Harte came into contact with had a special something to them, so special that they were easy to write about. Coming from two big cities Harte has seen many different types of people, most unforgetable. This is how he got his career as an American writer.

Most of his stories deal with people who are lawless and immoral. Harte writes about characters he has encountered in his life. In the story of "The Outcasts Of Poker Flat," all the characters are gamblers and drunks, "They were furninshed with liquor, which in this emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience" (10). These people relied on liquor to get them through everyday issues. In the story of "The Luck Of A Roaring Camp," most all the people were gamblers also with many more being law breakers; "The assemblage numbered about a hundred men. One or two of these were actual fugitives from justice, some were criminal, and all were reckless" (24). He sets these stories up to represent the world in which he saw and introduced innocent, and pure characters to clean the bad ones.

Since most of the characters that Harte developed in his stories are mainly people whom have lots of problems, he creates one character that everyone looks up to and brings the community closer together. In the short stories of The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Harte introduces a young couple in love to hold the group together through hard times, "Mr. Oakhurst recongnized Tom Simson, otherwise known as "The Innocent," of Sandy Bar" (11). This character and his companion are the innocent people brought in to help the others and their bad ways, by setting good examples for them. In the story of "The Luck of a Roaring Camp", Harte introduces a new baby called "The Luck" into the story to change the lives of the gamblers into a life of caring for not only oneself, but for others; "Oakhurst one day declared that the baby had brought ‘the luck’ to Roaring Camp" (29). Luck represents a sense of security which brings the entire camp together, because they all believe in the same thing. With this new "Luck" they believed they could do anything.

In the story of "The Outcasts Of Poker Flat," Harte writes of four people getting kicked out of the camp for hustling the others out of their money. These people go off on their own and get stuck in a snow storm. The "Innocent" couple come along and hold everyone together, giving them hope that they will survive:

"But the crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a rude camp meeting hymn, which the lovers, joining hands, sang with great earnestness and vociferation....caused it speedily to infect the others, who are least joined in the refrain" (16).

The couple made the others relax and let them know that everything would be okay.

The story of "The Luck Of A Roaring Camp," has the same story line. In a community of gamblers and lawbreakers, the first baby ever to be born there changed their lives for the better, "Again Stumpy imposed a kind of quarantine wupon those who aspired to the honor and privilege of holding The Luck" (31). All the people there looked up to the baby for luck as if he would make their lives better.

These short stories of hard times which Harte writes of gives the reader a sense of hope. Although Harte can relate his writings to real life problems and people, he tends to be a bit repetitive with his theme. All the short stories he writes turn bad people into good, there are more issues that he can write about rather than changing a person’s character.