This short story seems to be about karma. The four exiles were not killers, but they were not the cream of the crop. Mr Oakhurst, a professional gambler, The Duchess and Mother Shipton, who were prostitutes, and Uncle Billy, who was a thief, were all exiled from the town of Poker Flat on the account of the town trying to cleanse itself.
They were sent to Sandy Bar. Along the way, they set up camp in a cave-like area. As they set ip camp, the true inner selves of the four come out. The whiskey, cussing, and bad-mouthing begins. After a couple of days there, they end up snowed in with two new additions to the camp- The Innocent and Piney. These two were in love and engaged to each other.
As the story goes on, Uncle Billy steals the mules, and the food supply is running scarce. It seems as though the four exiles were getting what fate had in store for their careless lives. Mother Shipton dies of starvation, Uncle Billy is gone, and the days keep getting longer. Eventually, Piney and the Duchess die while The Innocent is going back to Poker Flat to get help. And Mr Oakhurst dies as well.
The suicide of Mr Oakhurst seems like a symbolism of that of Jesus. I pictured it as his own way of cancelling out his own sins, or the camp's for that matter. The symbolism in this story did not seem so strong to me. However, his death at the end seemed to bloat symbolism.
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I like how you back your thesis sentence up with great thought and proof within the story. I would agree that it was karma that fell upon the four exiles but at the same time did they not rectify their own wrongs? They couple that they met did not know who they were or what they had done. Still in the end when everyone seemed to have met there own demise they still did not know of their faults. Now was it a show? I think not. But in my opinion the story show how even the most evil of all people can change when given the chance to do so.
ReplyDeleteCadet Cobb’s post is very interesting. He sees the story as being about Karma. Personally when I first saw this I was wondering what he was thinking. I never would have even begun to think that the story was about Karma, but it’s a very great way to look at the story. All of the Characters in the story had performed wrong acts many times throughout their lives and it is only a matter of time before Karma catches up with them. Cobb also believes that Mr. Oakhurst killing himself symbolizes that of Jesus, he was simply canceling out his own sins. I really liked reading Mr. Cobb’s post and I thought it was very interesting how he felt about the story.
ReplyDeletei also feel like this was karma for the four outcast because even though they weren't killers as cadet Cobb stated they still had to repent for with their lives. But, in the end i felt that each of the outcast died with pure souls including OakHurst even though he committed sucide to give the others a chance at living and seeing a new day. I felt that the author kind of drifted away from the realism area by making all the sinners die except for uncle Billy, and by allowing the only non sinner to live which was innocent.
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