The Luck of Roaring Camp

Previously our view of the “American Baby” has been tied with a negative connotation. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the birth of the narrator’s baby jumpstarts her ultimate demise. In Desiree’s Baby, the birth of the baby reveals a secret that could no longer remain hidden from society. Both texts are clear examples of how a baby brought to a text death and pain. In Bret Harte’s The Luck of Roaring Camp, we are introduced to a new view of the “American Baby.” “Deaths were by no means uncommon in Roaring Camp, but a birth was a new thing.” (Pg. 524). This baby brought life into the camp; “the baby had brought the luck to the camp.” (Pg. 533). “The Luck” was the root cause for the rebirth of this band of misfits and of Roaring Camp. “The men seemed to appreciate the change, and, in self-indulgence, the rival establishment of “Tuttle’s Grocery” bestirred itself.” (Pg. 536). The physical face-lift of Roaring Camp continued and stirred a physical face-lift of the men. As we discussed in class, the men of Roaring Camp were misfits. Harte describes them as having “slight omissions” but they work together as one force despite their flaws. “The strongest man had but three fingers; the best shot had but one eye.” (Pg. 526). These men relied on each other to make up for qualities they lacked, creating one body; Roaring Camp. It was not until Luck was born that the men became individuals. Each man changed and improved in his own way and in his own time creating a community of individual men instead of the original one-man group.

The Yellow Wallpaper & Desiree's Baby

Well I just want to begin by saying that I have really loved the transition into short stories. Both of these short stories were so interesting! I had not realized how much I enjoyed having the information just bam, bam, bam in a piece of literature. But don’t get me wrong, the long almost boring books are great too.

I completely agree that reading habits vary when reading short stories versus long Romantic novels, or at least my personal reading habits changed. Short stories throw so much in the reader’s face so quickly. As we discussed in class, each detail is important. When there are only ten pages to tell a story, every rhetorical decision has meaning, whereas in a long novel, there are pages and pages to develop an idea or a character. I found that I needed to read the short stories so much more carefully in order to make meaning of all of the little details that Gilman and Chopin wrote. I actually had to reread The Yellow Wallpaper to try and understand it better and I found so many more details I had missed the first time! Rereading the final page of The Yellow Wallpaper again in class gave me a whole new perspective of the text. When earlier describing the wallpaper, the narrator described the eyes and the twisting necks and hideous heads, but on the final page Gilman writes, “All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision!” (Page 515) in reference to what some believe to be the narrator’s suicide. This is what caused the union of our narrator and the woman of the wallpaper. I had not made that connection until I changed my reading habits and I read carefully, picking up every detail and making meaning of Gilman’s rhetorical decisions.