Bret Harte's The Outcast Of Poker Flat

We all can change even if we have made a lot of mistakes. Is that what Bret Harte meant in this short story The Outcast of Poker Flat? The story takes place in a western town called Poker Flat in the gold rush era. This city exiles a group of awkward people because the city was facing a moral decline and in the effort to restore their way of living, they decided to exile another group of people that they believed were immoral, and this group was our main characters. Mr. Oakhurst a professional gambler, a prostitute known as Duchess, a witch and a prostitute known as Mother Shipton and uncle Billy the town drunkard and a suspect sluice robber. When they were in the exile, they met Tom Simson and Piney Woods a young couple that was running away. When they were out of town on their way to Sandy Bar, they decide to rest in a wooden cabin that Tom had found on his way to Poker Flat. After few days trapped in the wooden cabin, mother Shipton died by starving herself trying to help to keep Piney alive because she felt that Piney was a good

girl. One day in a last effort to save their lives, Mr. Oakhurst sent Tom to Poker Flat to look for help but when he came back was too late, Piney and the Duchess huddle close to getting warmth and died when they were sleeping, and Mr. Oakhurst committed suicide. Bret Harte uses the characters of the story to show the readers that we all could make changes in our lives.
Mother Shipton was an evil lady that only cared about herself.

At the beginning of the story, she expressed her desire to cut someone heart out and she started cursing at the people from the town. The first day out of town Mother Shipton and Uncle Billy drunk all the whiskey that they had, but after she met Piney Woods, she began to feel a little love and compassion for the girl that the author show was lovely. Towards the end of the story she became sick, very fast, and as she was dying, she left her portion of her food for Tom’s lover, Piney. According to the story the night of the tenth day, she calls Mr.-Oakhurst and she said, “I’m going but don’t say anything about it. Don’t waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head and open it.” Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton’s rations for the last week, untouched. “Give to the child,” she said, pointing to the sleeping Piney. “You’ve starved yourself,” said the

gambler.
The Duchess was a hysterical and melodramatic lady. At the beginning of the story she was the one to make the group stop because she complaint about everything but also, like mother Shipton, she begins to have some feeling about Piney Woods and that made her change. The love and the care that the Duchess starts to feel for Piney is what makes her transform from a selfish to be just as innocent and sinless as Piney herself. According to the story she is the one to take the leadership as soon Mr. Oakhurst left the cabin with Tom, she tries to be strong for Piney until the end but when they was dying, she became sinless like Piney. The character of the Duchess is one example of how people can change, when freely offered.
The story suggests that the line between good and evil is not nearly as sharp as we often think. Bret Harte also tries to explain the readers that we all could make change in our life and even the most extreme situation have something that we can learn from.