Critical Reading Practice 3

There is no questions or answers for this one. That takes WAY too much time and I'm not finding answers for them. Plus, I don't have my book anyway.

I know I haven't done it for a while so I decided to pick bit a lengthy story. It's called "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte.

http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/H/HarteBret/prose/roaringcamp/outcasts.html

This story has quite large number of SAT words and so I decided to include them here for anyone to study them in the text. The story is for YOU to read and therefore, vocabulary in context is also for YOU to find them and look up the definition. Don't worry, I wrote them in the order they appeared so while you're reading the story, you SHOULD be able to find them.

coquetry
malevolence
anathema
precipitious/precipice
amicable
jocular
vociferation
abated
pinnacle
malediction
vituperative
sublimity
ingenious
vernacular
querulously
pallid

Basic Analysis by me:

This story is well-written. The plot, which is relatively simple and complex simultaneously, shows vivid change in people. This is somewhat relating to how humans behave in crisis. There is always one person who runs off in selfish way (Uncle Billy) and another person who is kind at heart but appears callous at other people's feelings (Mr. Oakhurst).

There may be many reasons for Harte to write this story but for one thing, he wrote it to fit the time period. This was during the gold rush and yes, the gambling was also part of this period. Why did he not just choose about gold rush? Well that's like asking "why do you think about Martin Luther King Jr., in 1960 instead of Vietnam War?" Both are important and it's just matter of writer's choice.

Irony and foreshadowing also existed in this story. In the refrain of the people's songs or hymns, there is a clear evidence of this.

"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord,
And I'm bound to die in His army."

This is ironic because these people have been sentenced for their ill-behavior or the behaviors of taking money from others in gambling. Gambling itself is NOT the service of Lord. After all, people who lose money from gambling are HURT, right? So by saying that I live in the service of Lord, it's pretty weird and unusual. The second line is a foreshadowing. "And I'm bound to die in his army." insinuates that people'll die. Indeed, many people do DIE from this.

This story can be further analyzed but I'll leave rest upto the readers. This is definitely one of good short story to read.