The tone of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" is initially somber, at first appearing to present the story dispassionately. As the narrator describes the outcasts being marched out of town, they recount the circumstances surrounding the outcasts' emotions rather than describing the feelings themselves:
As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears from the Duchess, some bad language from Mother Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy.
The circumstances under which the town of Poker Flat is morally “rejuvenating” itself are recounted drily and without much emotion. While third-person narration from this period in American literature is in general more restrained and less emotionally connected than first- or second-person, this narrator is particularly detached from the events of the storyline at the beginning. The narrator lists events in sequence and objects in view, often in highly academic and erudite language; a "Parthian volley of expletives," for instance, is a circuitous way of saying Uncle Billy was swearing intensely. The capacity for expression in the narrator seems as "pent-up" here as the feelings released by the "outcasts" upon the departure of the guards.
Later in the story, the tone of the narrative softens, incorporating free indirect discourse, personification, and emotional language far more often. By the end, the tone has become almost sentimental, with the narrator eventually even passing an evaluative judgement on the character of Mr. Oakhurst, as “the strongest and yet the weakest” of the “outcasts.” This contrast in tone from beginning to end clearly suggests that the strict morality of the “secret committee” of Poker Flat is fundamentally flawed, as even the narrator seems moved by the tale as it unfolds.
The tone changes, in short, as the experiences of the outcasts and their fight to survive affects the narrator as well as the reader. It becomes far softer and more emotionally connected as the narrator is able to show the varieties of goodness and kindness present within the "outcasts." The tone of the story seems compatible with its melancholy mood in the end far more than it does in the beginning, as the steady and detached style becomes less stiff, and the narrator's voice more compassionate.
