The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Theme

Everyday, people are forced to make choices. Some of those choices are fairly easy to make, and others are not. In the short story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor, a man by the name of Tom T. Shiftlet stumbles across a farm where an old woman and her daughter, Lucynell Crater, reside. When the author first introduces the readers to Mr. Shiftlet, he is described as “a tramp and no one to be afraid of” (674). What starts as a man accidentally coming across the woman’s farm, becomes a story that follows Tom through his unrealized quest for love and acceptance. With the help of Ms. Crater and Lucynell, Tom learns that his choices have consequences. In “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, O’Connor creates a world in

The ultimate goal of pathos is to emotionally impact the readers in a way that leaves the stories ever-present in their minds for months or even years to come. Pathos is conveyed through the depictions of hardship, poverty, and loneliness faced by Suitcase Lady and multiple characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’. From broken dreams and complete isolation to extreme poverty, the characters are able to connect with the audience through feelings of sadness and pity. Isolation, delusion, and poverty are the traits of characters that are key to evoking emotional and sorrowful reactions from the readers.

In his use of characterization, he descriptively talks about the different states his mother undergoes in her illness and the surrounding events and emotions elicited by her continuous downfall, readers experience a feeling of sympathy for Wolff in his circumstance. This also brings light and support to his obscure, perhaps unethical, reasoning that his mother's life, along with those who find

Life is full of challenges. In the stories, “Breaking Through Uncertainty-Welcoming Adversity” and “Neighbours,” written by Jim McCormick and Lien Chao, the main characters illustrate benefits derived from taking risks. Even though both people in these texts undergo personal challenges, in “Neighbours” the character, Sally, receives greater benefits from taking risks than McCormick in “Breaking Through Uncertainty-Welcoming Adversity”.

When disaster strikes, two responses exist: lose hope, or find an inner strength to rise above. “Werner” is an essay where the author, Jo Ann Beard, presents the idea of rediscovering yourself, rebuilding a life after loss, and rising above adversity. Werner, Beard’s main character, finds that the only way to truly move on after a tragedy is to take a leap into what is unfamiliar. After a fire burns down everything Werner has, he is forced to grow and become a new man, leaving his old life behind. Throughout the essay, Beard illustrates a man who faces challenges to his sense of self, and who sequentially must change and become someone new to find who he is again. Beard’s use of the third person, candid diction, and conflict resolution compose an elaborate work that focuses on the concept of becoming a new and better person after a traumatic event.

In the short stories, “The Destructors” by Graham Greene and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, these stories though have drastically different settings and time frames, the character’s deal with similar inner turmoil from their exterior circumstances. Each short story seems to reveal an interesting outcome and turn of events as the character’s personalities unfold. Not only does one see the personalities of the characters unfold, but the settings are revealed, to set the stage for what drives the plot.

In Bret Harte’s “The Outcasts of Poker Flat “(1869), the mining camp of Poker Flat believes the only way to become a town is to banish a group of people called the ¨outcasts¨. However, many of the steps taken to get rid of this group are just as wicked as the crimes committed by the outcasts . Through conflicts between different groups of people, the story conveys the theme that hypocrisy leads to the realization of truth. Some of the main hypocritical events in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” are when the townsfolk want to rob Oakhurst, when Oakhurst helps Tom Simson, and when the Duchess and Piney are thought of as equal when found dead.

In “To Build a Fire”, the man ignores the advice that he has been given to survive in the Yukon environment: “The man had been very serious when he said that no man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old men were rather womanish, he thought” (London 72). The egotistical nature of the man is harmful to his own survival, which leads to dire consequences later on in the story. Ignoring the advice he had been given, the man is used to portray how people can become very haughty, too prideful for their own good. A similar message is conveyed in Crane’s “An Episode of War”, in which arrogance leads to malicious warfare in our own society. When the lieutenant is shot and injured, his pride hinders him from accepting assistance from the men he is commanding: “There were others who proffered assistance. One timidly presented his shoulder and asked the lieutenant if he cared to lean upon it, but the latter waved him away mournfully. He wore the look of one who knows he is the victim of a terrible disease and understands his helplessness”(---). Injured and in need of help, the lieutenant warrants away assistance from his subordinates, as it would be modest to do so. His arrogance prevents his wound from receiving immediate and proper attention from those who rank below him, with the lieutenant only accepting help from other officers on the battlefield. Both London and Crane display similar examples of how human egotism and close-mindedness can lead to harmful effects, especially when people choose to ignore nature’s power. This naturalist style is incorporated in their perspectives, and helps shape some of the many ideas and themes that the reader can pick out from both author’s

Total Opposites In the short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte, the author uses characters in the story that have very similar characteristics, except for one, "Uncle Billy." John Oakhurst is a big time gambler in Poker Flat. He took large sums of money from many people in town. The residents of Poker Flat were very upset with him always winning bets and all of their money. Out of all the people that are banned from Poker Flat, Oakhurst possesses the best qualities out of the group. The people of the town were attempting to clean up Poker Flat, but they really only rid themselves of one thief and three good hearted people that had some bad breaks. The other people that were forced to leave were "The Duchess" and "Mother

Intro - In The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Bret Harte creates John Oakhurst to be morally ambiguous to express that one should not judge others at first glance.

Life is filled with tragedies, whether they be subtle or monumental. In society we are constantly surrounded by hardships and situations that test our own individual character, forcing us to react in order to move forward. The main characters in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates each react differently to the various tragedies they encounter, revealing their true identities that lie behind the (facade?)/version of themselves they present to the world. These tragedies that factor into all three works are both presented and interpreted differently in each story: In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard rejoices

The story's protagonist, Charlie Wales, is less a victim of bad luck than of circumstance, both socio-economic and personal. Charlie does not deserve Marion's continued denial of custody of his daughter, but the story is less about what Charlie does or does not deserve than how easily one's life can spin out of control due to unforeseen circumstance.

The theme of suffering can come in numerous varieties; under categories both physical and emotional. Suffering is presented as a key concept in ‘Othello’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. All three texts explore many aspects of suffering in parts, however the most obvious and concentrated facet leans towards the psychological aspect rather then the physical side. In the three chosen texts many of the characters suffer from some sort of emotional trauma. Psychological suffering and distress is a major topic in all three chosen texts as the authors use this ailment in order to drive the storyline forward,

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the central character encounters moral, physical, and psychological danger, especially with the Grangerfords.

Each character in this story is experiencing an emotional battle which they try to find healing but for some it will be too late. The narrator in the story is Sheppard. Sheppard is a widow, his wife died in less than a year before the story began. Sheppard experiences emotional distress by trying hard to change a troubled teen, Rufus, into an honorable young man while teaching his son, Norton, to be selfless. Instead