Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was aware of the hesitation of his judges. The use of situational irony is brilliantly used when Oakhurst is receiving his sentence. The plot of the story begins with the specific date of November 23, 1850, which is the day that the professional poker player John Oakhurst receives sentencing to be forcefully removed and exiled with a group of criminals to the edge of town. In Harte’s short story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, the author provides the reader with details that are consistent with the time that this story is written. Bret Harte uses flawed characters such as John Oakhurst from The Outcasts of Poker Flat to personify local color writing with moralistic qualities while using literary devices such as irony to ridicule concepts of local culture from the perspective of the regionalist movement, in which these literary devices are used in a satirical way, but also contains characters that depict personal truths. This 19th-century literary movement is significant to the progressive development of future literary movements that follow, such as American Naturalism.

Regionalist or local color literature is defined as a combination of poetry and literature that focuses, addresses, and describes characters, dialects or accents, local customs, topography, and other important features of a specific region of the United States, which is significantly influenced by southwestern and eastern humor and frequently appears in the form of a short story (Campbell). Regionalism was prominent during the American Civil War era, and concentrated on elements of local culture, using poetic imagery and specific descriptions to accurately project dialect and local customs in literature ( Annenberg ). Because of the successes of The Outcasts of Poker Flat, he became a renowned and successful regionalist author. Francis Bret Harte (1836-1902) was a part of the American West in the local color writer movement in the state of California and wrote a series of stories such as The Outcasts of Poker Flat and The Luck of Roaring Camp.

The outcasts of poker flat answer