The Outcast of Poker Flat “The Outcast of Poker Flat” was published on January 1869 and was written by Bret Harte. His real-life experience was the inspiration to write this story - the hardships of living and earn money while living in a harsh and relatively primitive region of the United States, the West. The main plot focuses around a group of people that tries to survive against the forces of nature and bad luck. The story starts in a small gold-mining town in California, Poker Flat. In the minds of its residents, the town is going through a recession. To counteract this situation, a secret society is created to determine which people should be killed or expelled from the town. On November 23rd 1850 four people are banished - young woman called The Duchess, and older woman known as Mother Shipton, an alcoholic and robber Uncle Billy and a gabler who won a lot of money from the people of the secret society, John Oakhurst. They cannot return to the city, otherwise they will be killed by hanging. …show more content…
It would take only one day to arrive there, but it is only accessible by riding through a path in the Sierra Mountains range. After hours of traveling, The Duchess tired and demands to stop and says that she won’t go any further. Oakhurst says that it is risky to stop because they could not have enough food to survive, but the rest decides to stop. In the meantime, the group stumbles upon a fugitive couple, Tom Simons and Piney Woods. They want to go to Poker Flat to get married and become rich. Coincidentally, Tom Simons also known as “The Innocent”, met with John Oakhurst before. Some time ago they met at a Poker table, and the gambler won a lot of money from Simons. The young couple decides to stick with the group, unaware of the fact that they were
One in five veterans from Afghanistan and Iraqi wars have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event and mostly effects military veterans. The book Lone Survivor, written by Marcus Luttrell, is an eye witness account of the 2005 operation Red Wing that tells the harrowing story of SEAL Team 10. Throughout the book, Marcus hears voices in his head of his fallen teammates. Even today, Marcus wakes up in the middle of the night because of the terrible nightmares, which are symptoms of PTSD. There are a lot of ways to combat PTSD so our troops do not have to endure this hardship. Some of the ways to combat the disorder is to understand PTSD, detect it early, having family support and preventing it.
Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causes his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge, giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night.
In the small, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20), the narrator is forced to stay the night at Frome’s. As he enters the unfamiliar house, the story flashes back twenty-four years to Ethan Frome’s young life. Living out his life with Zenobia Frome, his hypochondriac of a wife whom he does not love, Ethan has nowhere to turn for a glance at happiness. But when Zenobia’s, or Zeena’s, young cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to care for her, Ethan falls in love with the young aid. Mattie is Ethan’s sole light in life and “she is in contrast to everything in Starkfield; her feelings bubble near the surface” (Bernard 2). All through the novella, the two young lovers hide their feelings towards each other. When they finally let out their true emotions to each other in the end, the consequence is an unforeseen one. Throughout Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrays a twisted fairy tale similar to the story of Snow White with the traditional characters, but without a happy ending to show that in a bleak and stark reality, the beautiful and enchanting maiden could become the witch.
He begins to feel finally free. In the passage, “ The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” the author uses Duchess, a saloon girl; Uncle Billy, a local thief and drunk; Mother Shipton, a madam; and Mr.Oakhurst, a poker player to illustrate his definition of isolation. Being stranded in the mountains and dealing with starvation, they are left to fight for life. In the end, Mr. Oakhurst commits suicide in order to not deal with being isolated. Through all of the passages, the authors use different themes to illustrate isolation in different
tale of an everyday town and their annual lottery. It shows how cruel a town can be in
The raiding party headed west toward Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). The decision was made to lighten their load since they had too many captives to outrun the pursing militia. At nightfall they separated a tearful Mary from her family, along with a neighbor boy who had also been captured, and led them away. The rest of the Jemison family were killed and scalped.
Australian artist Eddie Perfect’s play, “The Beast” was presented by Melbourne Theatre Company in association with Melbourne Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival in late 2013. It premiered at the Southbank Theatre (home of Melbourne Theatre Company) and ran from October 3 through to November 9 of 2013. This dark satire is a modern day rant on the middle class, and the dreadful things people do in order to be seen to be good, as opposed to actually doing good. It’s the story of a close group of couples that vow to take on a more sustainable lifestyle in the country after experiencing a close shave with death. When they are forced to kill a free-range calf that they purchased for “nose to tail eating”, tensions boil over as they come face to face with alarming truths.
What is the difference between effective or ineffective communication skills when working with children, this essay is determine to find out the appropriate ways to communicate with children by analyse, the video clip ‘Unloved’ by Tony Grison, where a young White British girl aged 11 was taken into care, due to her father being abusive towards her and mother not wanting to see her.
During the 1690s, the Salem Witchcraft Trials occurred. However, they did not start in Salem, they occurred first in Danver (Starkey vii). This atrocity of an event was first started because of the fantasies of very little girls. These girl’s accusations created the largest example of witch hysteria on record (Starkey viii). During this time, the authorities had arrested over 150 people from more than two different towns (Gragg ix). Salem however, was not the only town that had girls saying there were witches in their town (Godbeer ix). Many people tried to escape, but that didn’t go to well for them (Godbeer x).
Raw by Scott Monk Brett holds a rebellious attitude and has certain negativity towards authority; this is expressed in his attitude towards the police at the start of the novel and the use of the dialogue "pigs". They capture Brett after a bungled robbery and he is taken from Sydney to a juvenile detention centre in Mungindi run by Sam and Mary Fraser. Brett Dalton is the individual we see the institution have major effects on, it changes his life, attitudes and morals.
Their actions could cause irreparable damage to others, which will make the people responsible regret their decisions. The committee of Poker Flat decided to send the outcasts out of the town. They felt that their crimes were not severe enough to merit a tougher punishment. They definitely did not want them to die; otherwise, they would have had them killed in the town itself. When Tom Simson returns with the rescue party, they find that the Duchess and Piney have frozen to death, holding their hands together. The author describes the scene as,“…when pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told by the equal peace that dwelt among them which was she that had sinned” (8). The residents of the city should feel relieved to get rid of the outcasts. Instead, they feel pity, indicating they didn’t want the individuals to die, and they just wanted to get rid of them. The author implies they were regretting their actions of driving the people away in the cold, harsh winter without realizing that their actions would cost the lives of the
In “Editha”, she believes in the ideal that a man should ‘win’ a woman’s love and, she also believes in the ideal of an American war hero. She begins to push these ideals on to her fiancé George. She manipulates him by saying the war is glorious and, also by saying things like, “God meant it to be war”. (Howells 1082). Editha’s most manipulating plan throughout this story in the letter that she writes for George. She packs all his letters, gifts and even the engagement ring to send with the letter which says, “So I am sending you these things for your keeping till you have made up your mind.” (Howells 1082). “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” has more than just one idealist, all of the community of Poker Flat believe in the ideal if they banish the improper people their community will be a better place. The people of Poker Flat forbid a gambler, thief and two prostitutes from ever coming back which forces them to go on a trip to the next place they can stay. On this trip the outcasts get snowed in and all but one lose their life at the expense of someone else’s
Bret Harte, the author of the “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”, was a great American author and poet. He is best remembered for his revolutionary life in California. These people, the people with the traditional western US built him the first traditional western writer to win international popularity. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat “reflects the western attitude of his time”. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” remains an essential bit of American literature and one of the best stories of the unpleasant and -tumble days in California Gold Rush in his use of western setting and local color.
“The Outcasts of Poker Flat” was first published in an issue of the Overland Monthly magazine in January, 1869. Bret Harte was also the editor of Overland Monthly ...
Indeed, the sixteenth century was a time of much turmoil. For the citizens it was a difficult time, but for those of royalty it was even more so. A perfect example of this is Lady Jane Grey. By her own parents and the Duke John Dudley, whom I believe is the true villian of this story, Jane was betrayed. Lady Jane Grey was a brave young woman who was manipulated by others and had to pay the ultimate price of death for a crime in which she was innocent.