Analysis of The Outcasts of Poker Flat by John Oakhurst
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.
John has shown numerous times in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”, that he is an extraordinarily calm person. One time in which Mr. Oakhurst showed extreme calmness is when the men come to take him away, and he just took what is coming. That to me shows extreme calmness. Another time when John Oakhurst shoes his trait of calmness is when he has to walk on foot back to Poker Flat to save Piney. John just said that he would try, and off he went. No worries or second thoughts about it. Those two things to me, show that John Oakhurst is a extremely calm person.
John, the gambler, is an extremely courageous person. He has proven this by a number of actions in this story. First of all he shows tons of courage by not getting scared when the travelers and him get snowed in. If it where me I probably would have run off like Uncle Billy did. Another example of when Mr. Oakhurst showed courage was when he kicked Uncle Billy to stop him from laughing. Most people would have just told him to stop laughing. But not Mr. Oakhurst, he just gave him a swift kick in the stomach. That to me shows the utmost courage in the world.
Another one of John’s traits is that he is overwhelmingly modest. Mr. Oakhurst’s modesty is proven numerous times in this short story by Brett Harte. One of those times is when John puts the death card on the tree, he doesn’t boast about dying while trying to save a life. He simply states that he ran out of luck on a certain day. Another time in which John displayed modesty is when he never boasts of winning all that money during card games.
The story appears to be revolving around deviance. Deviance is defined as the violation of norms, whether the infraction is as grave as murder or as trivial as driving over the speed limit. However, what makes something deviant is not the act itself, but the reaction to the act. In this story, both Robby and John are deviants. John violated his society norms by doing something that is not expected of him. He became a scholar, married a white woman. This is not a bad thing in itself but the way John accomplished it is not good either. John pushed away his family and deliberately distanced himself from his Homewood community. This suggests that deviance is neutral in itself; it can be negative or positive. It is also relative, as it can be positive from one side and negative from the other. People often th...
While in Meet John Doe, Long John Willoughby is shown to be a wreck. He is a homeless man who almost made it to the big leagues but never did because of an injury. He is shown to be a simple man, frustrated with his failure to make it to the big leagues but good at heart. When c...
Courage is an act of sacrifice that allows you to face danger without showing fear. A time he showed courage was when he threw the first punch at the rumble between the Greasers and Socs. He threw the first punch for pride, he threw it for loyalty, but he was courageous while doing so. As Ponyboy stated on page 142, "... He was ashamed to be on our side..." It took a lot of courage to throw the first punch being on a side you were ashamed of being on. He was ashamed because the person he punched was what he could've been and that crushed Darry. It would take a lot of courage to look after two adolescent boys while they are growing up. Darry could've gone to college, become a national football player and have a better life than what he had. Darry instead sacrificed that to keep his brothers together after the death of their parents. If Sodapop and Ponyboy could stay together, Darry would've gone to college. Darry was incredibly courageous to give that up for his brothers.
John is in the ready position, waiting for the referee to shoot the gun in the air. He hears the gun go off and sprints down the track. He keeps his pace right behind the person in the lead. John sees that the person in front of him is getting tired, so he runs with all his might and takes the lead. But he was running too fast and suddenly his left foot hit the front of his right foot. He falls and slams onto the ground and all the racers pass him. His leg is scrapped badly, but John shows courage and gets up. He runs all the way to the finish line even though all racers are already at the finish line. He showed courage, courage that is trying even though failure is inevitable. Harper Lee and Mark Mathabane exhibit this courage throughout their books To Kill a Mockingbird and Kaffir Boy. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee shows courage through Atticus when he takes up Lee and Mathabane illustrate that courage is defined as people who put effort to achieve something even though failure is likely.
He didn’t like lying to people it felt very wrong to him, unlike the other cowards in the town who have lied to stay alive. Towards the end of the play, he confesses to the court that he has had an affair with Abby saying “Elizabeth, I have confessed it!” (Miller 191). He knows that his wife Elizabeth is in trouble and he saves her because he knew she was going to lie for him. If John had not saved her then she would have died because of John’s mistakes. This shows what kind of a man John is, and shows how unselfish of a guy he also can be.
In conclusion, courage isn’t fighting or killing or doing something that is scary or dangerous. It is a person who stand to fight even though she/he will know that they will lose. All these characters display different forms of courage in the novel. Atticus risks his every day in his life of a Black man and he knows that he is going to lose. Jem and Scout try to protect his father from the mob outside the Jailhouse and they refuse to leave their father alone.Mrs. Dubose tries to die free from her morphine addiction even though she knows that she will die in the process. They all stood what they believe and they refuse to give up or surrender.
This book from Bret Harte did an excellent job in capturing the attention of the reader, despite the story being incredibly short. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” tells the events of a band of exiles from the city of Poker Flat and the people they meet while leaving for another town. The group consisted of John Oakhurst, a gambler; Mother Shipton and the Duchess, both prostitutes; Uncle Billy, a suspected thief and drunkard; Tom Simson, also known as the “Innocent”; and Piney Woods, Tom’s lady. At the end of the story, everyone ends up dying, but one death in particular that piqued interest was the death of Mr. Oakhurst. Before dying, he pinned a two of clubs to the bark of a tree with a Bowie knife. This two of clubs pinned to the tree has a
However on the other side John Proctor the stories protagonist portrays “the kind of man, even tempered, ...
In the book, Children of the Lamp The Akhenaten Adventure, by P. B. Kerr there is a character named John, one of the protagonists in the story. John is immature because he always wants to use his powers for fun, he is always joking around, and above all, he enjoys playing jokes on his twin sister. John, as I mentioned before, has a twin. This twin is named Philippa, and they share a very special connection. But that does not stop John from making jokes and pranking her whenever he can. Also, John likes to just overall mess around in any important adventure, including when they get trapped. John is a major part of the plot, and he helps Philippa and Nimrod face the antagonist, the Ifrit tribe.
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The narrator, John, is intelligent but both boring and bored – a silent observer who scarcely shows a significant amount of humanity. In fact, this strange personality of John becomes exceedingly apparent from the very first line of the book, “Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.” (Vonnegut 1). John’s introduction demonstrates wonders about how he views the world. He is an observer – a note taker – and his actual identity and humanity aren’t immensely important to anything (a fact which he is painfully aware of). His interactions with other characters are often bland or awkward, and his constant use of sarcasm ends up showing how cynical the world looks through his eyes. The conversation he has with Dr. Breed shows the observant aspect of John, though in that case he is actually performing an interview (Vonnegut 42). That being the case, his demeanor doesn’t change from that conversation to when he isn’t giving
...ssion and intrusiveness. John’s lack of having an open mind to his wife’s thoughts and opinions and his constant childish like treatment of his wife somehow emphasizes this point, although, this may not have been his intention. The narrator felt strongly that her thoughts and feelings were being disregarded and ignored as stated by the narrator “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 115), and she shows her despise of her husband giving extra care to what he considers more important cases over his wife’s case with a sarcastic notion “I am glad my case is not serious!” (Gilman 115). It is very doubtful that John is the villain of the story, his good intentions towards doing everything practical and possible to help his wife gain her strength and wellbeing is clear throughout the story.
John, the narrator's husband, represents society at large. Like society, John controls and determines much of what his wife should or should not do, leaving his wife incapable of making her own decisions. John's domineering nature can be accredited to the fact that John is male and also a "physician of high standing" (1). John is "practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of thi...