The Outcasts of Poker Flat
by Bret Harte

The Outcasts of Poker Flat: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” like most of Bret Harte’s short fiction, is narrated in the omniscient third person, with occasional forays by the narrator into the first person. A wide gap exists between the voice of the narrator (which is erudite, restrained, and formal) and the vernacular speech of Harte’s characters. Here, for example, the narrator describes the “outcasts” joining together in song to distract themselves from the cold:

Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, produced somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his backpack. Notwithstanding some difficulties attending the manipulation of this instrument [...] the crowning festivity of this evening was reached in a rude camp-meeting hymn [...] I fear that a certain defiant tone and Covenanter’s swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, caused it speedily to infect the others.