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The outcast of the poker flat
Problems with racism in literature
The outcast of the 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
John Oakhurst is the main character in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”. John is an outstanding person and has some phenomenal traits. Such as that he is unusually calm, courageous, and modest.
Furthermore, they all have an outside threat. The ornithologist might shoot the heron and make it a specimen while the man is suffered from the severe cold weather. In the stories both characters have to deal with the danger from outside world. Sylvia has to climb upon the tree to see where the heron is, the man has to avoid the snow falls from the tree.
The public when the women first came out writing stories they had no clue what to think about their writings. It wasn’t like the traditional men writing where it kept the reader on the edge of their seats and being entertained. The women wrote more of a darker kind of story to where some people would call it a horror story, it was the first time that women had a voice. Women often talked about one thing and it was freedom, they always feel like they have been trapped. Also men wanted to inform and they had a lot of humor in their stories, where the women did not. Female authors had a much darker, melancholy storyline to their writing, while male authors wrote primarily to entertain their readers.
As Sylvia becomes acquainted with the hunter, she begins to learn about his pursuit of the white heron.
This rejection of roles has been documented in several novels, including Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Kindred exhibits three types of role denial as they pertain to race in both the novel and reality: denial of a label placed by society, denial of label contradictory of what is desired, and denial of a label given by your own community. All three ways are still present today as the fight to stop human categorization continues due to its negative impact on the citizens, communities, and country as a whole. The end of this will be through continuation of denying the labels that are wrongfully placed on us in order to discourage future labeling, and every person should take the liberty to stop categorizing people and refute the labels placed on them to make this country accepting of all
Throughout the late 19th century following the Industrial Revolution, society became focused on urban life and began to neglect the importance of rural society and nature. In “A White Heron” Sarah Orne Jewett, through Sylvia’s decision to protect the heron, contemplates the importance of nature and rural society. In particular, Jewett employs the cow grazing scene to show the importance of and solitude that Sylvia finds in rural life. When the hunter appears and Sylvia accompanies him on his journey to find the bird, his actions and speech reveal the destructiveness of urban society on nature. The scene when Sylvia climbs the tree to find the heron, initially in order to please the hunter and satisfy her new love for him, shows her realization
In early American literature, many authors began shifting the focus of their works from the refined upper class citizens to the real every-day experiences of the American people. As a result of this shift, authors began writing about life in the small towns scattered across the United States, while focusing on non-typical and socially and morally lowly characters. A perfect example of this type of writing can be found in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” a short story written by Bret Harte. In this story we are introduced to four characters, cast from their pioneertown for participating in morally objectionable activities. The four consisted of John Oakhurst, a gambler, Duchess, a prostitute, Mother Shipton, a madam, and Uncle Billy, a local drunk
Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron" is a brilliant story of an inquisitive young girl named Sylvia. Jewett's narrative describes Sylvia's experiences within the mystical and inviting woods of New England. I think a central theme in "A White Heron" is the dramatization of the clash between two competing sets of values in late nineteenth-century America: industrial and rural. Sylvia is the main character of the story. We can follow her through the story to help us see many industrial and rural differences. Inevitably, I believe that we are encouraged to favor Sylvia's rural environment and values over the industrial ones.
Sylvia is?a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town?, but she is innocent and pure. ? The little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle not very far away.? Sylvia was more alarmed than before. when the hunter appears and talks to her. She easily agrees to help the hunter by providing food and a place to sleep, although she initially stayed alert with the hunter....
Nine-year-old Sylvia is a child who lives in the wood. Her name, ‘‘Sylvia,’’ and her nickname, ‘‘Sylvy,’’ come from the Latin silva meaning ‘‘wood’’ or ‘‘forest.’’ Sylvia lives in the middle of the woods with grandma Tilley and hardly sees anyone else. She remembers when she lived in the city but never wants to return there. However, when she comes across a hunter who is an older man, she enjoys being around another human being and is not sure what to do with the conflicting emotions she starts to feel. He offers to give her money in exchange for giving up the nesting spot of the white heron. She is the only person who can give him what he needs. What she has to think about though is the betrayal of her relationship with nature and whether or not it is worth it. In the end, she does not reveal the heron’s nesting place.
The story is about a friendly hunter who comes to a budding girl named Sylvia for help to find a bird for his collection. He offers her ten dollars. At first, she agrees because of the impression the hunter makes on her. Later, she has a revelation through her love for the forest and neglects to tell him where the bird is. Sylvia represents the purity of innocence and has a bond with the natural world. Many of Sylvia’s thoughts are associated with the ability to be free. This exemplifies the women’s rights activism that was happening in the 19th century. Sarah Orne Jewett develops her theme of the change from innocence to experience in her short story “The White Heron” through the use of imagery, characterization, and symbolism.
“Perhaps the most obvious meaning of "’A White Heron’" comes from the female creation, or re-creation, myth Jewett offers. The story presents a little girl whose world is entirely female. No brother, father, uncle, or grandfather lives in it; the men have feuded and left or died. Only she and her grandmother inhabit the rural paradise to which the child was removed after spending the first eight years of her life in a noisy manmade mill-town…In the country with her grandmother she is safe. Named Sylvia (Latin for "woods")” (Ammons
For instance, relating to the employment, there were two obvious hierarchical differences between the black and the white, and women and men. According to Kimberle (2015), in the late 1970, the employment opportunities for black people and women were still in the straitened circumstance, furthermore, even if there were chances for them, “... the black job were men’s job, and the women’s job were only for whites.” (Kimberle Cranshaw 2015). In other words, there was no opportunity for the black women. In this case, the unjust discriminatory treatment for black women simply resulted from their intersected identities as a “black” and “woman” both were marginalized in the society. In regard to this, however, the important point is that people did not analyze the cause of this situation through considering it from the both racial and sexual sides simultaneously. People ignored the experience of the others, and categorized the black women based on their sex as a “woman”. In other words, people, especially who were in the privileged position, just neglected the subtle “differences” of others, and they stretched the rules to their own advantages. Relating to these “differences”, Audre Lorde (1984: 115) explains that “ But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the
When an individual unintentionally enters a room full of an unfamiliar crowd, he or she is bound to be embarrassed, but also have an apprehensive sensation of how others in that room will distinguish them. A situation like that establishes a moment in which that person realizes that all eyes are gaping at that individual. Just when that person could consider forgetting what just happened, unfortunately judgments start circulating among the unfamiliar crowd. As most people know, judgments are based off of a person’s appearance, race, religion, or a quality that doesn’t appeal to the person analyzing them. Obviously, judging is something that takes place whether someone likes it or not, but there are certain limits to it that many cross by adding
We meet strangers everywhere we go. They come from all walks of life. We can choose to ignore them or to talk to them. I have judged people based on the way they walk, talk, dress or the way they approached me. These judgments tend to stick with me even if I find out who they really are. I don 't think it is right to get judgmental when I first approach a person. I feel so bad when I find out who they really are isn 't who I thought they were. It just seems to happen so naturally. I guess it is just human nature. I can relate this to my senior high school days. Most of the judgments I made about people never helped me because it got me into bad company. In a short story ‘Strangers’, a stranger hurt and lied to Toni Morrison about who she was. She was really hurt by the stranger because she had misjudged her about who she was. She did not expect a woman, who looked so humble, would do such a thing. I can relate to her story because I also misjudged someone and ended up getting hurt.