'The Outcasts Of Poker Flat'

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Throughout the entirety of our lives we have categorized places, objects, and people into groups, some common ones being good and bad, right and wrong, yet in a whole this is a form of segregation and when applied to people, it can be seen as racism. Take for example the story of Hazel Bryan and Elizabeth Eckford, while this is not a literary story, it is a very true story and one that is, quite frankly, disturbing. This story, of two girls from seemingly different worlds, can be seen in some of the works of literature that we have read thus far. Some of the works whose significance should be considered to Hazel and Elizabeth are A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett , The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg …show more content…

Sylvia, one of the three characters, once lived in the city but has recently moved in with her grandmother. One day Sylvia is approached by the stranger in the woods near her grandmother's home. The stranger is a hunter looking for an elusive white heron, even offering Sylvia money for the heron's location. Sylvia, have complete knowledge of the heron's location, leads the hunter astray so as to keep the heron alive. Sylvia relates to Hazel at this moment as she wants to be friends with all the birds and animals in the forest, so she decides to side with them and not tell the hunter the truth, but succumbing to the pressure of her "peers" and acting the way they would have wanted her to, so lost out on some money, but made friends in the end. Hazel on the other realized her choice was a mistake and that she should have seen Elizabeth for what she was, a perfectly normal human like herself. Hazel's sudden realization of her mistake relates to Sylvia's epiphany as she realized something she knew all along, "… truly it was a vast and awesome world" (Jewett 536). The previous quote from A White Heron is at the pinnacle moment of Sylvia's epiphany as she realizes how great the world is and how the world is not here for material objects, but for real interactions with our environment because there is so much variety to it and so much to do …show more content…

When related to Hazel and Elizabeth it becomes obvious the Elizabeth, and other citizens of African descent, would be the outcast. For centuries Africans have been seen as lesser beings because of the difference in the skin color, what shows on them. This greatly reflects the Outcasts as they were outcasted for their own "skin" per se. While the Outcasts skin was their sins, it still reflects what the people of Poker Flat believed about the outcasts as many of our ancestors, and many people today, consider those of African descent to be lesser due to their skin color. This is a great shock to many people as we all know to "never judge a book by its cover" and many people try to say they liver their entire lives around this, but honestly, everyone judges people and objects when you first lay eyes on said person or object, either it's color, or texture, or your own attitude will set it apart in your mind as something good or bad. These instant judgements may often go unnoticed because you don't see the person or object again, as soon as you do you will feel the same emotions you did when that judgement was made. However we have, as humans, developed to a point in which we make prejudgments, yet still endeavor to find some form of validity to our

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