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The Outcasts of Poker Flats - Online Term Paper

The Outcasts of Poker Flats

In the story “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” by Bret Harte, there are many themes. The most important is that there is a little good in everyone. No matter how bad a person may outwardly appear somewhere deep down inside there is some good. The people in the story that express this idea are Mother Shipton, Mr. Oakhurst and the Duchess. Bret Harte also showed an opposing figure to this idea in Uncle Billy.
Mother Shipton was sculpted in the story as an “Oh”. Oh’s are bad people in general, but then something happened. Mother Shipton actually did something good for Piney. Mother Shipton sacrificed her life to keep Piney alive. Mr. Oakhurst handed out food that was supposed to keep everyone ...

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out. Mr. Oakhurst’s good deed was trying to keep everyone alive. Mr. Oakhurst eventually shot himself because a slow death seemed unbearable to him.
The Duchess was another Oh, but a turn events gets her to do good. Since Piney is innocent minded, the Duchess tried her best to keep her that way. In return, Piney’s innocence starts to rub off on the Duchess. The Duchess starts to comfort Piney when they come to realization that death is their fate. She starts doing well by comforting Piney; therefore the Duchess had a turnaround just like Mother Shipton and Mr. Oakhurst.
As you can see, Bret Harte showed that he believed in this idea. I also believe that Bret Harte left doubt for this topic. This story had a character that looked bad on the outside and was bad internally as well. This character was Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy was a prankster who tricked Mother Shipton and the Duchess to drink. Mr. Oakhurst is not a drinker so he refused the offer. When they all got drunk, Uncle ...

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The Outcasts of Poker Flats. (2011, September 12). Retrieved August 1, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Outcasts-of-Poker-Flats/99896

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 9/12/2011 11:27:57 PM
Submitted By: ABligen04
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 665
Pages: 3

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