Stereotyped Characters in The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Francis Brett Harte was born in the East, but moved west and changed his life to become a writer. Harte's works were said to, ". . . express the matter [humor] briefly but more or less essentially, the power of laughing not only at things, but also with them." (Chesterson 339). He prospered as a writer with his work "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" is one of, if not the, defining short stories for the Western genre. It takes stereotypical characters and places them in a typical western situation. This is a form of local color. Local color is the use of dialect, scenery, and stereotyped characters in a story. Harte primarily uses stereotypical characters as a form of local color in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by is portrayal of the naive innocents, the golden hearted prostitutes, and the reserved gambler. Tom Simson and Piney Woods are prime examples of stereotypical innocents by their naivety, their ingenuousness, and even their sleeping habits. They are the newly wed couple of the story. One way of telling their innocence is by their how
Although the prostitutes have a horrible persona they are still stereotyped by their true golden hearted demeanor. When you first meet The Duchess and Mother Shipton they come across harshly and have an unpleasant aura about them. The Duchess, while riding her horse, adjusts her "somewhat draggled plumes" (Harte 415) indicating that she is still wearing her costume. Later she blushes so that it is seen through all of her make up. Mother Shipton has more of radicalism behind her. When she is met in the story, she is cursing the town of Poker Flat. In the end, you find out that she had been starving herself to save food for the young Piney. In sleep their truth comes out, once again they are angels guarding the Innocents. humored grin across his freckled face, while his wife slept next to her frail sisters as though she was being guarded by angels. As one can see Brett Harte effectively uses stereotyped characters as a form of local color in the short story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", by using innocence, promiscuity, and subduedness of his roles. He gained his fame to be the, "... g
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 745
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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