I
enjoyed reading “The Luck of Roaring Camp”. Harte’s words really brought the
story to life. I find the day to day life of people from the 1800s fascinating.
It was easy for me to imagine a small mining camp of men. It is easy to see how
a group of only men could resort to living in such cruel and unhealthy
conditions. What did they have to live for? What could have compelled them to
live differently? Harte described the men’s clothes as snake’s skin. It was
shed and replaced instead of cleaned. I think Harte portrayed the importance of
women, children, and love.
I
believe this short story specifically points to the importance of love and
family. The miners had no family. It seems the only thing that motivated them
was gold, gambling, and smoking. They had no desire for hygiene, a nice home,
or anything more than they needed to survive. I do not think men are the only
sex at fault. Men just happen to be the subject of this story. Kentuck is the
best example in the story. He is characterized as being rough and tough. He is the stereotypical man. While all of the
men filed through the room he reached toward the baby. The “dammed little cuss”
grabbed his finger. The Crude language seemed to be a cover-up for his true
feelings and change of heart. Over a short amount of time the camp was greatly
improved. The men cleaned their clothes, fixed up the home of the baby and even
imported nice things. Instead of gambling and fighting, the men sang lullabies
under shade trees. The whole atmosphere changed. The men named the baby and
cared much for him.
The
miners loved the baby. Why did they love the baby so much? Did Kentuck and
others feel responsible because it was possible they could be the father? I
don’t know why they felt the way they did. I do believe this story is a great
example of how love makes the world go around. Love doesn’t always mean we give
up our lives like kentuck did for Luck. Love should better our lives. Love is what makes the human race progress.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI agree that I found the moral of the story to be the message of love and family. In a camp of rough, criminal-esque guys that spontaneously found themselves in charge of a baby, the community was forced to come together for the baby's needs. The presence of innocent life and the responsibility that comes along with it can transform people or groups as a whole. To answer your questions, I feel as though the miners loved the baby because a relationship with a young life really does make the world go around and transforms even the most misguided people to give all attention to an innocent being in need of help. Responding to love is a natural inkling of people and I loved reading this short story as a quick reminder that love and family are arguably the most important factors of life.
I certainly had not seen the ideas or themes that you have brought up and I really like them. I see your evidence for them and I agree with you that the message of the importance of love and family could be derived from the text. Personally, however, I think the baby is symbolic (of sudden success in their mining). Do you think the baby being symbolic changes how the text is interpreted or can both messages be there at the same time?
ReplyDeleteI interpreted this story to be religious. It is hard to ignore the numerous biblical references in the text and I believe the baby, "Tommy" Luck, is a pretty obviously a representation of Christ himself (this is most explicit during Kentuck's dying words...essentially saying he has been given salvation by the child). You could, in some ways, interpret the story in a secular manner and say The Luck of Roaring Camp's theme is the importance and positive influence of "women, children, and love" as Amon noted. However, this secular interpretation could simply be an accompaniment or extension to the earlier mentioned religious interpretation if you view God as love, the child as Christ, and recognize that "tenderness and care" are generally seen as female characteristics. However, it is arguable whether or not you could even claim the importance of women is a central theme to this story. The only female character, Sal, was "sinful" and did not directly improve the miners habits or morality. Furthermore, the narrator says in reference to Sal, "Perhaps the less said of her the better", this clearly supports the idea that Sal was not the catalyst for self-improvement in Roaring Camp. In fact, the need for a women is completely disregard when Stumpy says Jinny the Donkey "could manage to rear the child".
ReplyDeleteWhy did Bret Harte have characters that don't fit in? I thought it was because realistically speaking not everybody fit in in real life. Now if that's wrong please correct me.
ReplyDelete