“The outcast of Poker Flat” is very emotional story about four people who were outcast of the town because they weren’t proper fit for the new community. Each individual in the story except for Uncle Billy who is actually a thief and an alcoholic. Oakhurst is the protagonist of the story who is exiled from the community for taking towns money using gambling. The Duchess is another person who exiled for being a prostitute. However she shows her better side later on in the story. Mother Shipton was another character who was looked upon and she was exiled for being a prostitute as well. Later on the group is joined by Tom Simpson and Piney who wanted to get married in Poker Flat because Piney’s father was against this marriage. Piney is known
In “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” by Bret Harte, his portrayal of the “outcasts” in the story contradict with their stereotypes. This is seen with all four outsiders, but specifically with the gambler, Mr. Oakhurst. When thinking of a gambler, the words selfish, careless, unreliable, and irresponsible come to mind. However, Bret Harte contrasts with this stereotype by making Mr. Oakhurst a good hearted person. For example, when the Duchess declared she could go no farther, the gambler never once “thought of deserting his weaker and more pitiable companions.”
John Oakhurst is the main character in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”. John is an outstanding person and has some phenomenal traits. Such as that he is unusually calm, courageous, and modest.
The public when the women first came out writing stories they had no clue what to think about their writings. It wasn’t like the traditional men writing where it kept the reader on the edge of their seats and being entertained. The women wrote more of a darker kind of story to where some people would call it a horror story, it was the first time that women had a voice. Women often talked about one thing and it was freedom, they always feel like they have been trapped. Also men wanted to inform and they had a lot of humor in their stories, where the women did not. Female authors had a much darker, melancholy storyline to their writing, while male authors wrote primarily to entertain their readers.
The characters in “The characters in “The Destructors” are not as fully developed as those in “The Rocking Horse Winner”. In “The Destructors” the characters are bound together as a distinct unit or a gang. Their overall interaction is based primarily on the destruction of Old Misery’s house. Dialogue between the gang members is limited to a great extent on the house’s destruction. In contrast, “The Rocking Horse Winner” characters, Paul, his mother, his uncle, and Bassett, are in constant conflict over poverty and bad luck as opposed to wealth and good luck. “The Destructors” is a story about the gang-style activities of young boys living in the inner-city poverty of post-war London and their conspiracy toward destroying an old man’s house. The opening of “The Rocking Horse Winner” sets the tone, moo...
George Saunders, a writer with a particular inclination in modern America, carefully depicts the newly-emerged working class of America and its poor living condition in his literary works. By blending fact with fiction, Saunders intentionally chooses to expose the working class’s hardship, which greatly caused by poverty and illiteracy, through a satirical approach to criticize realistic contemporary situations. In his short story “Sea Oak,” the narrator Thomas who works at a strip club and his elder aunt Bernie who works at Drugtown for minimum are the only two contributors to their impoverished family. Thus, this family of six, including two babies, is only capable to afford a ragged house at Sea Oak,
John Oakhurst possesses a reputation as a feared gambler in the town. When Mr. Oakhurst arrives in town a group of men who were once talking " ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances" when the gambler appeared before them(Harte 59).Readers sense that Mr. Oakhurst is a well-known man who is feared by many in the town. The actions towards him makes the audience wonder if he has done something that only the townspeople know about; However he is very popular in a good way among his peers when the group of outcasts are at camp. The group endured many challenges at the camp, and "When the outcasts are trapped by a snowstorm, Oakhurst assumes leadership of the group ", giving them the leadership they need ( Wilson-AVL). Oakhurst takes over the group to make sure everything got done properly. He was also selfless; He gave his good horse to the Duchess, and his money he had won from Tom back to Tom. He was a good leader, and a good person, when he was needed the most. The Audience has seen two sides of John Oakhurst; However, how does one decide which side is the real
Through the view of 16 year old protagonist Billy, the reader is shown his struggles of being a homeless teen. Billy was in a state of homelessness because he ran away from "Nowheresville", and from his abusive father. This is proven on page 10, where in Billy's point of view it states, "The wind and rain hits you in the face with the force of a father's punch..." which implies that Billy knows what the force of a father's punch feels like. His abusive father is one of the main causes for Billy being homeless, and why Billy had hitched a train to Bendarat to start a new life.
In point of fact, Poker Flat was after somebody.' It 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. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were then hanging from boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment.
The film chronicles the histories of three fathers, and manages to relates and link their events and situations. First is Mitchell Stephens and his relationship with his drug-addict daughter. Second is Sam, and the secret affair he is having with his young daughter Nicole. He is somewhat of a narcissistic character because of his preoccupation with himself and pleasing himself, and his lack of empathy throughout the film for the others in the town. Third is Billy, who loves his two children so much that he follows behind the school bus every day waving at them. Billy is also having an affair with a married woman who owns the town’s only motel. On the exterior the town is an average place with good people just living their lives. But, beneath all the small town simplicity is a web of lies and secrets, some which must be dealt with in the face of this tragedy.
Her 2 step sisters and step mother were very jealous of the young girl. They took away all of her beautiful clothes and made her wear an old dirty dress and wooden shoes. However, the story later reveals that beauty comes from within. The climax of the story is when the King sponsored a 3 days Ball for the Prince. The King invited all the young ladies to the Ball in hopes the Prince should find a wife. Ashputtle wanted to go but her evil step-mother say no because Ashputtle was dirty and had nothing to wear. However, “Ashputtle” called on her angels to help her. The doves and all the birds from the heavens covered her with a beautiful dress and shoes for the Ball. The turtledoves helped her finish all of her work. Ashputtle was protected and watched by the angels and her mother.The plot of the story took place in the home of Ashputtle and the city in which she lived. There were many symbols, metaphors and similes in the story. The doves, hazel tree and the sprigs all represented angels and protection for Ashputtle. The tree was a place of calmness and solitude. A place where Ashputtle could pray and talk to her mother, angels and God. The irony of the story is Ashputtle was the
In Act I Scene 1, the book introduces you to some of its’ main characters. Sir Thomas and Master Richard Rich are first to be introduced. Rich is offered a job as a school teacher, but he wants to be in office. Sir Thomas gives Rich a silver cup that was given to him as a bribe by a woman who put a lawsuit into the Court of Requests. After giving Rich the cup, Sir Thomas tells Rich of all the temptations you have when you are in office—money, manors, villages, mills, etc. Then enter the Duke of Norfolk and Lady Alice, Sir Thomas’s wife, and Margaret More, Sir Thomas’s daughter. The Duke of Norfolk, who is Earl Marshall of England, is in his late 40’s, a sportsman, a soldier, and a great nobleman. Lady Alice is in her late 40’s, born into merchant’s class, but now a great lady. Margaret is in her middle 20’s, beautiful ...
From the beginning, Crane creates an atmosphere of violence, eeriness, and uneasiness. He writes, ?The Palace Hotel, then, was always screaming and howling in a way that made the dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seem only a grey swampish hush.? When Scully, the proprietor of the hotel, greets the Cowboy, the Easterner, and the Swede, the latter is seen as ?shaky and quick-eyed.? He is a suspicious character that acts quite out of place. The first people that the entourage encounters are playing cards. It is Johnnie, who is the son of Scully, and an old farmer with grey and sandy whiskers. The farmer spits tobacco juice into a sawdust box to show his contempt and anger towards Johnnie. Johnnie agitates the farmer to such an extent that the farmer leaves the hotel silently explosive. At this point, a new game of High Five begins. The Cowboy immediately bothers the others with his incessant banging of the cards. The Swede is silent until the game absorbs the other players. He breaks this concentration when he says, ?I suppose there ...
The Duchess of Berwick is the first character that is introduced in the excerpt and immediately, there’s a clear idea of what kind of person she is. She has a very harsh conclusion of people below her, as seen; “I won’t let you know my daughter, you are far too wicked.” Although she knows Darlington well, she will not allow her daughter to think on her own and act on her own accord. It’s dominant that the Duchess values status along with wealth with the saying, “I don’t know what society is coming to. The most dreadful people seem to go everywhere.” She is very clearly seen to not like the lower class and thinks a bit...
Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, strive to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play, yet they both deceive others to escape lives which they grow tired of. They both hope to marry the girls that they love, yet they are starting the relationship based on false pretence and lies. It is ironic that they both call themselves "Ernest," a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack.
...to support and stand by both Edward Casaubon and Tertius Lydgate – when the town alienates him – is socially criticised behaviour within Middlemarch. Standing by her strong beliefs and going against the social expectations of provincial Middlemarch allows her to pursue and emerge into a new role, away from Middlemarch, in which helps her achieve a happy ending with her second husband and highlights a change for the better of the relationship between women and society at the time.