Sentimentality and sentimentalism are nouns closely related in meaning. According to the glossary in Literature for Composition, sentimentality is "excessive emotion, especially excessive pity" (Barnet et al. 1335). A Handbook to Literature defines the term in relation to the intent of the writer, saying that it is "the effort to induce an emotional response disproportionate to the situation . . . " (Holeman and Harmon 437).

In regard to the second word, sentimentalism, A Handbook to Literature distinguishes between two senses of the term. The first is "the over indulgence in emotion" particularly when the emotion is intentionally induced so that it can be enjoyed. The second is "an optimistic overemphasis of the goodness of humanity . . ." (437).

"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" reveals examples of sentimentality and sentimentalism as the terms are defined above. First, it illustrates the "optimistic overemphasis of the goodness of humanity" (437). It is true that not all the characters in the story exhibit goodness. The residents of Poker Flat are self-righteous and even cruel in administering vigilante justice. They have hung two men and have banished the gambler Oakhurst, the prostitutes Mother Shipton and the Duchess, and the sluice robber Uncle Billy. But while Uncle Billy is a victim, he is also a callus thief who steals the mules of the banished travelers leaving them stranded in the snow storm. But these perpetrators of cruelty and selfishness are necessary foils for the outcasts who exhibit unexpected and heroic goodness.

As a gambler, Oakhurst might be expected to be a hard, even a predatory character. However, when "the innocent" Simpson, loses his entire savings to Oakhurst in a poker game, the gambler returns the money saying, "Tommy, you're a good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again" (233). And his goodness is even more dramatically demonstrated by his self sacrifice when he supplies Tommy with a set of snow shoes fashioned from a pack saddle and sends the boy to find help while he remains behind to face death.

The quality of self sacrifice is also exhibited by the old prostitute, Mother Shipton. She takes a maternal attitude toward the fifteen year old Piney, and in their snow bound confinement "set[s] herself to the task of amusing ‘the child' . . . " (236). And it is Mother Shipton who hordes her food ration, starving herself in order to save the girl.

The emphasis on the goodness of the outcasts lends an ironic piquancy to the story and also provides the opportunity for the author to manipulate the reader's emotions. The sentimentalism becomes more prominent as the fate of the characters becomes more certain, and it lies both in the events and in the way they are presented.

The death of Mother Shipton provides one opportunity for Harte to manipulate our emotions. She has been made hard and cynical by a life of prostitution. She is a rough, unladylike character who snores and curses with a facility that gives her tirades a kind of sublimity. The contrast between her initial state as "the strongest of the party" with her lapse into sickness and eventual death is calculated to make us feel pity. When Oakhurst confronts her by saying "You've starved yourself," she replies stoically, "That's what they call it" (237).

The concurrent deaths of Piney Woods and the Duchess also illustrate the author's attempts to play upon our emotions. With Mother Shipton dead, Tom gone to seek help, and Oakhurst unaccounted for, the two women are alone. They cling to one another as the fire dies away, Piney now assuming the role of the stronger. But it is not only the picture of the two women clinging together as they succumb to cold and hunger that is calculated to make us feel pity, but also the author's sententious treatment of the relationship between them.

After a silence of many hours, the Duchess asks her companion, "Piney, can you pray?" to which the girl replies "No, dear" (238). By this brief exchange, Harte establishes the idea that the distance between the fallen woman and the virgin is not so great. Both seem equally estranged from religion and find it impossible to demonstrate an affirmation of faith even in the face of death.

But Harte goes further and states his lesson explicitly. He says that when they are discovered and "pitying fingers brushed aside the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told from the equal peace that dwelt upon them, which was she that had sinned" (238).

Oakhurst's death provides the final example of how Harte tells his story so as to produce a sense of pity. After stacking a supply of firewood for the women at the log shelter and sending Tom Simpson to seek help, Oakhurt shoots himself.

His final message, scribbled on "a duce of clubs pinned to the bark [of a tree] with a bowie knife" gives his epitaph in the jargon of a gambler declaring that he "stuck a streak of bad luck" and "handed in his checks" (238). The fatalistic attitude reflected by the words as well as the image of "the pulseless and cold" body of Oakhurst "still claim as in life, beneath the snow" are intended to make us feel pity at the unjust fate of this man "who was the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat" (238).

The sentimentalism of the story is not derived solely from the incidents, but also from the way the author tells the story. Jack London narrates the accidental death of a traveler in the arctic in "To Build a Fire," but he tells the story as a scientific observer might take note of any sequence of natural events. In contrast, Bret Harte sets out to make sympathetic to his characters and to teach us a lesson. It is his emphasis on the inherent goodness of these outcasts, as well as his deliberate attempt to make us feel pity, that identifies this story as an example of sentimentalism in literature.

Harte, Bret. "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Vol. II. Ed.       Nina Baym et al. 5 th ed. New York: Norton, 1998.

Holman, Hugh C. and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. 6 th ed. New York: MacMillan, 1992.