By: Andrés Oropeza
The Gold Rush of 1848 in the United States offered not only many new opportunities but also hopes and dreams to those who had no other means of making a living. Thousands of people traveled from both near and far to California ready to mine any and every place hiding gold. Many, however, had no idea of the risk they were taking by going to the west, a land without law and a place where men look after themselves or came face to face with the barrel of a gun. This is the kind of setting for the stories, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” and “The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Francis Bret Harte. Mr. Oakhurst moved from Roaring Camp to Poker Flat, the place that would make him meet his unfortunate fate. Cherokee Sal and her child are other characters from Roaring Camp that only find misfortune. The vagabonds and fugitives forsaken by society all go in search of wealth and prosperity in the Gold Rush, but often fail because of the unlucky hand they are dealt.
Mr. Oakhurst is a very good poker player, however, he strikes nothing but bad luck that leads him to his doom while only trying to survive. The reason he is still around the lawless towns is because he still has not yet struck any gold. He must be trying extremely hard because he has depended on the money that he wins in poker games in order to go on living. However, his luck eventually runs out. The narrator says, “With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer.”[i] This shows Mr. Oakhurst finally understands that from after having angered many by taking their money in poker games, he is about to take a turn for the worst. Mr. Oakhurst says, “I’m proud to live in the service of the Lord, and I’m bound to die in His army.”[ii] This means that Mr. Oakhurst kept his religion close to him and lived honestly, hardly turning to sins for his own selfish desires. However, prayers were not enough to keep him alive; Mr. Oakhurst dies because he sacrifices himself in order to give the ladies that were camping with him more time to live by leaving the shelter and not eating any more food. This shows Mr. Oakhurst as being an honest hard working gentleman. However, that was not enough to strike gold. What he needed was luck, like the kind that he had every time he would win a poker game. Since, he did not possess that kind of luck, all that he encountered were hardships and a couple of friends, and finally, his death.
Cherokee Sal is a woman who has tried to turn over a new leaf in order to have a future to look forward to, however, destiny has chosen a more unfortunate plan for her. Cherokee Sal must have been a desperate soul to travel all the way to the Wild West in order to get rich. The narrator says, “But at that time she was the only woman in Roaring Camp, and was just then lying in sore extremity, when she most needed the ministration of her own sex.”[iii] She was the only woman in her town, so no one could help her while she was trying to give birth. The narrator also says, “It was, perhaps part of the expiation of her sin, that at a moment when she most lacked her sex’s intuitive tenderness and care, she met only the half-contemptuous faces of her masculine associates.”[iv] This means, that because she had been working so hard to make a living for herself while she was pregnant, she must have turned into a mean and unhappy person. This caused her to only find her co-workers standing beside her showing sympathy. Cherokee Sal dies when she gives birth and her baby dies as well because the baby did not live in a safe environment where it was around loving parents. So, it did not matter how much effort Cherokee Sal put into working or mining for gold. She was not able to get what she wanted because she was given unimaginable bad luck. She was pregnant at a bad time, working while she was pregnant and died giving birth because no one around her knew anything about giving birth. So, it would seem that someone was out to get her because of all the unfortunate events happening to her.
The Wild West was a dangerous place to live in because of the violence and the struggle needed to get by. Both Mr. Oakley and Cherokee Sal struggled in trying to stay out of trouble and work hard almost everyday. However, that never got either of them anywhere because they were missing something that cannot be gained solely through working hard. They did not have luck to help ease the struggle and finally give them a break. Instead, they both met an unfortunate fate where they both die under painful conditions. So, hard work alone could not save anyone from their problems because without luck, nothing will change and the person will only keep on digging and digging having only hope to get them by.
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