The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte - Essay Example

Module The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte: Analyzing the Inspirations from the Real Tragedy of Donner Party Bret Harte, an American author from the late 19th century, was an absolute genius whose short stories centered on the early Californian life that he was well acquainted with. The proposed methodology is to identify the similarities between one of his short stories – “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” (1870) and the real tragic incident of the Donner Party in 1846. To fulfill this purpose, I have started the paper with a short foreword about Bret Harte, his life and works, followed by an analysis of his famous short story and a presentation of the research on the real tragedy of the Donner Party. I will try to examine the similarities and differences between the two and how possibly the incident could have inspired the author to develop his own literary creation, which is considered a classic today. The conclusion of this research will be based on my observation. Francis Brett Harte was born in Albany New York on the 25th of August, 1836. He moved to California when his father died in 1853.His initial exposure was through a weekly newspaper: he did editing and writing for Northern California. Harte started contributing his articles and short stories to the journal The Golden Era under the name The Bohemian or Bret. His freelance writing flourished when he started working as a superintendent’s secretary of the United States Mint. Californian mining camp was his favorite theme and is often found in many of his works. The Lost Galleon and Other Tales (1867) is considered to be his first major work. He died of throat cancer in the year 1902 on May 5th ("Bret Harte"). The story of “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” centers around four characters: Gambler John Oakhurst; two prostitutes, The Duchess and Mother Shipton; and a drunkard robber Uncle Billy, who were labeled as immoral and were outcast from Poker Flat on the 23rd November, 1850 (Bret 19-21). They decided to head towards Sandy Bar, another town. They meet Tom Simson and his fifteen-year old lover Piney Woods, who ran away to get married at Poker Flat. The travelers took shelter in a camp; Uncle Billy ditched them by sensing the arrival of a snow storm and ran away with their horses and mules. Mother Shipten starved herself to death while saving the food for Piney. Tom goes to Poker Flat to seek help, being advised by Oakhurst. The Law of Poker Flat, upon reaching the site, discovered the bodies of two women hugging in a peaceful repose. Bret clearly identifies the weakest member of the outcast ones, The Gambler, who commits suicide by shooting himself as his body lies beneath a tree with his tragic fate (Bret 34-42). The tragedy of Donner Party is a real incident involving a group of 89 emigrants headed by Jacob and George Donner, who left Springfield in an attempt to discover a shorter route to California. They were ditched by their trail guide, who fled away without any trail marks. They surpassed the time to cross the Nevada Mountains, encountered heavy snowfall and were trapped for several days. They circumstances eventually made them resort to cannibalism in order to survive (Daniel "Log Entries for April, 1847"). The Donner Party Diary has been compiled by Daniel Rosen, where in the April log, he mentions, “It is likely that the Donner children survived by eating the flesh of Jacob Donner” (Daniel "Log Entries for April, 1847"). It is beyond any doubts that the tragedy might have inspired Bret to develop a plot where people are trapped in a snowstorm and are unable to complete their journey. Considering the similarities in the story, a fellow member ran away with their mules while in the real incident, the Donner members were ditched by their trail guide, who misguided them. However, in a documentary, the writer Harold Schindler blames the emigrants for taking such a risky decision of travelling, which turned out to be disastrous. It was the greed, ambitions and hope for a better life that trapped these emigrants in a horrifying situation (Ric). In the story too, the members are travelling to another town in hope for a better life. Similar to the tragedy of the Donner Party, the members are confined to stay in cabins and camps when the snowstorm becomes a terrible barrier in their journey. Gradually, their food becomes scarce, and so is the hope of living another day. Many of the Donner members starved to death, similar to the characters dying of hunger in the story, like Piney, The Duchess and Madam. The emigrants and the characters of the story had a strong desire to live, yet they started accepting the fact that they will not be able to survive; Madam, while talking to Oakhurst, utters these lines: “I’m going…but don’t say anything about it…” (Bret 41). Similarly, the collected log diary of the Donner party contains some horrifying incidents where they have named the camp as a ‘melancholy spot’ or the ‘camp of death’ (Daniel) as number of people started dying of diseases, starvation and malnutrition. One strong similarity between the Donner members and the characters could be a sense of self-realization or distress of having left their home and embarking on a journey which took the lives of many innocent people, children, and even infants. Considering the differences, the character in “The Poker Flat” are exiled, and they had no other option than to leave for another town while the Donner members willingly went in search of a better life in the valley of California. The idea of migration was strongly promoted by Hastings, who lied to them about his knowledge of a shorter route. The Donner tragedy pushed its members towards cannibalism; their situation was so worse that they had to eat the dead bodies of their fellow travelers. In the December log, one of the travelers, Reed, writes in his diary several times that human flesh was consumed by the travelers: “30th.--Stripped all the flesh from three of the bodies; traveled four miles” and “….there was now but two alternatives left them--either to die, or preserve life by eating the bodies of the dead; slowly and reluctantly they adopted the latter alternative" (Daniel "Log Entries for December, 1847"). The characters in the story are quite peaceful and supportive of each other; they sing songs and try to minimize the stress. Madam Shipten sacrifices her own appetite in order to feed Piney (Leslie). The author in many places reduces the pressure or uneasiness of a situation by maintaining a calm tone all through the story, and the calmness is also depicted in the characters, too, like in the sentence: “Mr. Oakhurst settled himself coolly to the losing game before him” (Bret 41). In my observation, Bret Harte is a brilliant author who possesses the quality of narrating a precarious situation with ease; he neither dramatizes any situation nor pressurizes the readers to worry too much. He chooses his words wisely and maintains a passive voice all through the story. It is likely that the tragedy of the Donner Party might have motivated the exceptionally gifted mind of Harte. His message in the story seems to be aligning with a saying that we ought to hate the sin, not the sinners, because although the characters in the story had done some immoral activities, they were really good human beings – humble, helpful and vulnerable. They should not have been exiled from their homes. Pain is a powerful emotion which can even bring strangers together, like in the case of Piney and The Duchess. In the end, the author highlights that killing oneself is a sign of weakness and how awful the situation should have been to make such a brave person shoot himself. Works Cited "Bret Harte." Online-literature. Online Literature, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2013. Daniel M , Rosen . "Log Entries for April, 1847." The Donner Party Diary. Web. 25 Feb 2013. . Daniel M , Rosen . "Log Entries for December, 1847." The Donner Party Diary. Web. 25 Feb 2013. . Harte, Bret. The Luck of Roaring Camp, and other sketches. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1870. 19-36. Print. Leslie, Nichols. "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." Literary Analysis. Wordpress. Web. 25 Feb 2013. . Ric , Burns. "The Donner Party". 1992. Video. PBS Home Videos, USA. Web. 25 Feb 2013. Read More