Week 4, Analysis, Close Reading: The Outcast of Poker Flats

Bret Harte, 1836-1902, The Outcast of Poker Flats, pg 216-225

"But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine-trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore the following, written in pencil, in a firm hand: -

Beneath The Tree

Lies the Body 

of 

JOHN OAKHURST

Who Struck A Streak of Bad Luck 

on the 23rd of November, 1850, 

and

Handed in his Checks 

on the 7th December, 1850.

And pulseless 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" pg 224-225

I found this passage important in understand the character of John Oakhurst because throughout the story he was described as a calm, strong, man. I felt like he was a good man, he didn't tell the Tom and Piney that Uncle Billy took their mule and left them, he did not tell them that Mother Shipton starved herself and died, so Piney could have her food, he made snow shoes for Tom to go and get help. But in the end he knew his good luck was done and he hit his, "Streak of Bad Luck," and decided to end his life on his own terms, and did it in a way that he wanted.

This passage symbolizes the character of John Oakhurst even at his grave site. He was a gambler and there was a "deuce of clubs," he "struct a streak of bad luck", and "handed in his checks", theses are references to gambling, how it was his life and how it identified him.

This passage was a resolution to my question, why did Mr. Oakhurst leave the woman to die alone. Once I read this last passage it connected the unknown, did he leave the woman alone to die? Why did he leave them? Where did he go? The passage shows that although Mr. Oakhurst appeared strong and the leader of the group, he was really weakest. He left the two woman in the cabin, after he convinced Tom to leave and get help, and then he killed himself. He was weak because he could not freeze or starve to death with the woman. He left them with questions about when he was coming back and after he did not return by the morning, they knew he left them to die alone, but at least they died in each other's arms.