On Bret Harte's The Outcasts of Poker Flat (4)

Yuen M. Ho
English 48B
January 19, 2007
Journal #11 Bret Harte

I. Quote

“And pulse less and cold, with a Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow, lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat.”

II. Summary

This was the ending lines of the story of “The Outcasts of Poker Flat.” It aroused several different suspicions with regard to what had actually happened to Mr. Oakhurst. He was buried and the deuce of clubs with his name was pinned to the bark of pine tree. I can think of several possibilities: he killed himself to save himself from the remaining pitiful life or to save others, he was murdered by the Innocent, or he was killed by one of the girls. While I have read and read trying to figure out any more clues I may have left out, I cannot but come to the conclusion that probably there is no one definite answer Harte intended when he wrote, and this is the appeal of this story.

III. Response

Throughout the story, Harte has always been mocking about life and its contradictions. Even by the end of the story, he brought about the death of Mr. Oakhurst, who has been depicted as a heroic kind of person: calm, handsome and righteous. While the other outcasts were complaining about the condition or worrying about food and survival, he always remained silent and observed the reality as if he was a spectator. He was always strong, no matter in the world of gambling or in a difficult condition to strive for survival. Nevertheless, the strongest was also the weakest. If he chose to commit suicide, he had lost to life. If he was killed, he had lost to the murderer whom he must have trusted before his death.

The ending resonated with the theme the author had brought up earlier: life is full of uncertainties. The ending of this story (of Mr. Oakhurst’s life) is just as unpredictable as the reality we are living in.