The Outcasts of Poker Flat

by Bret Harte

The Outcasts of Poker Flat: Irony 1 key example

Definition of Irony

Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Some Aren't Sinners!:

Situational irony is used in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” to demonstrate the cruelty and impartiality of fate, which makes bad things happen to good people and vice versa seemingly randomly.  A clear example of situational irony occurs when the reader is introduced to a pair of “lovers” who join the party on their journey across the ridge. These two new members of the band of "outcasts" haven't been exiled from Poker Flat at all. They are a young couple, the "Innocent" Tom Simson and the 15-year-old Piney Woods, who approach the group looking for company on their journey to elope, and decide to join them when they discover that Tom knows Oakhurst from a previous encounter:

There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting [...] He had started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek his fortune. "Alone?" No, not exactly alone; in fact (a giggle), he had run away with Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? [...] they had run away, and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and here they were. And they were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp, and company.