The Outcasts of Poker Flat

Harte utilizes snow as a multifaceted symbol. Its whiteness represents purity and renewal, furnishing a theme of moral complexity and ultimately deepening the story’s irony.

As an uncontrollable and unpredictable force, the snowstorm strands the outcasts and puts radical pressure on their moral characters, spurring ethical development. To survive, they must work together by rationing provisions, maintaining shelter, and by taking care of each other. The snow has a “purifying” effect because it creates a situation in which the characters are compelled to selflessness—but the snow is not a positive entity. Upon the third day, the outcasts realize the severity of the snowstorm, “a hopeless, uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which the castaways still cling” (Paragraph 28). Such an image of expansive whiteness traditionally evokes purity and even spiritual rebirth, yet it ultimately signals the outcasts’ impending death. The symbolism is thus twofold: Snow represents the “purity” of the outcasts’ moral integrity in their self-sacrifice, but it also represents the danger in concepts of purity that are based in judgment or self-righteousness, as the Poker Flat committee’s moralistic prescriptions have turned out to be fatal.

Shortly before Mother Shipton performs her final act of self-sacrifice for Piney, “the snowflakes were sifted over the land” from “leaden skies” (Paragraph 30). Her dead body, formerly tied to the profession for which she was condemned and exiled, “had been committed to the snow” (Paragraph 31). As the Duchess and Piney embrace each other while dying, “[t]hat night the storm reached its greatest fury, and rending asunder the protecting pines, invaded the very hut” (Paragraph 34). After the women’s deaths, “white-winged birds” fall around the two women, “[b]ut all human stain, all trace of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully flung from above” (Paragraph 36). The word “mercifully” holds some irony, as this wrongful death resulted from the outcasts’ exile—a punishment devoid of mercy and issued by judges who are the story’s most corrupt characters.

Throughout human history, fire has fulfilled a basic need for survival: warmth. The motif of fire in the story shows that humans have not only basic physical needs but also emotional needs, such as human connection. The outcasts need fire and its warmth to endure the brutally cold storm; however, they also need the fire to create human bonds that will help foster their survival. As Uncle Billy “returned to the party, he found them seated by a fire—for the air had grown strangely chill and the sky overcast—in apparent amicable conversation” (Paragraph 14). Prior to this scene, none of the outcasts try to be friendly to one another. When Oakhurst awakens the following morning, “he stirred the dying fire” (Paragraph 16), which occurs right before his discovery of Uncle Billy’s thievery. The “dying fire” indicates that the emotional connection from the night before has now been compromised because of Uncle Billy’s selfishness. Instead of sacrificing for others, he has now put the outcasts at even more risk.

Tom and Piney’s song refrain, “I’m proud to live in the service of the Lord, / And I’m bound to die in His army” (Paragraphs 22-23), is initially sung while everyone huddles around the fire. As their singing becomes more boisterous, “the flames of their altar leaped heavenward as if in token of the vow” (Paragraph 24). This image of the fire growing taller and taller reflects the promise of the song, of choosing to serve others selflessly. This campfire unites the outcasts, people of varying temperaments and backgrounds, and foreshadows their self-sacrifice.