30 pages • 1 hour read
Bret HarteThe Luck of Roaring Camp
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1868A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Cherokee Sal
Cherokee Sal is described as “coarse” and “very sinful” and is characterized exclusively by the men’s perceptions of her. She is the lone woman at the camp, and she suffers as a result, laboring alone “without her sex’s intuitive tenderness and care” (1). As an Indigenous American woman, Sal’s existence brings the men’s racism and sexism to the fore, and they alternatively degrade and ignore her; the narrator introduces her by saying, “Perhaps the less said of her the better” (1). After she gives birth to Tommy, she is not mentioned again, though the narrator notes that “[w]ithin an hour she had climbed, as it were, that rugged road that led to the stars, and so passed out of Roaring Camp, its sin and shame, forever” (2), implying that Sal was redeemed from her sins in death.
With this, Sal mirrors two biblical women. The narrator mentions “the primal curse” and “the first transgression” (1) when describing her labor, aligning her with Eve. At the same time, she dies giving birth to Tommy, the story’s Christ figure, simultaneously aligning her with the Virgin Mary. With this, Harte subverts his era’s ideal feminine archetype, which elevated white, virginal women.
Stumpy
Without saying so explicitly, Harte’s story implies that Stumpy at first shares the other prospectors’ rough characteristics. He is first identified as “one of the loungers” (2) awaiting the end of Sal’s travails. His only credentials for childbed nursing duties are his two previous families, the “legal informality” of which landed him at Roaring Camp, to begin with. Bringing a child into the world, however, changes him. It is Stumpy’s idea to feed the child donkey milk, and he soon takes on most of the parenting responsibilities.
Seeming to follow the precepts contained in popular women’s guides, Stumpy organizes a promising environment for Tommy, mandating cleanliness, morality, and good behavior among the men of the camp. With no other evidence of religiosity, he insists on a serious christening of “Tommy Luck” rather than the farcical one another man planned. When the men take a “unanimous and enthusiastic” (4) resolution to adopt Tommy, they willingly accept Stumpy’s strictures, believing they produced “pastoral happiness” in the camp. While he is a dynamic character in this way, the story doesn’t show Stumpy interacting directly with Tommy. While his actions imply his affection, his emotions are never expressed by either himself or the narrator.
Kentuck
In Kentuck, the change from masculine to feminine role appears most clearly, making him a dynamic character. When Tommy first grasps his finger, for example, Kentuck removes the tiny hand “with, perhaps, more tenderness and care than he might have been deemed capable of showing” (4). He is clearly moved by the event, repeatedly describing it and showing the relevant finger to the other men. Sleepless, he wanders through the camp, frequently voicing his condemnation of “the d—d little cuss” (4) to defray his “weaknesses of the nobler sex” (4).
Kentuck’s desire to hold the child provokes a wholesale reconsideration of his attitude toward cleanliness. Previously, he regarded clothing as something to be “sloughed off through decay” (6) rather than voluntarily changed. Under Stumpy’s regime, and although it is a “cruel mortification” (6), he appears for his daily time with the child with a fresh shirt and clean, shining face. He continues showing strong emotional responses to Tommy, telling stories about him in “a breathless state of excitement” (8).
Tommy Luck
The story revolves around Tommy, who embodies the Christ figure archetype. As an infant, Tommy does not do much himself, but the plot and other characters’ arcs are driven by interactions with him. He is alternately described as “serenely happy” and “contemplative,” imbuing him with wisdom beyond his years, emphasized by the physical description of “grey eyes.” He can likewise commune with nature, contributing to the sense that he is divine.
As an archetype, Tommy is a symbol of hope, possibility, and redemption. He survives childbirth against all odds, and the men are inspired by him to improve. They become cleaner, kinder, and more respectful, at least to each other. Under his influence, the men also become more in tune with nature rather than viewing it strictly as their adversary; they appreciate non-precious stones and flowers as beautiful gifts for the baby.
Since he is frequently associated with Christian motifs and symbols, he is also a Christ figure and a symbol of Christian redemption. The men around him leave their sins behind and better themselves in his presence. With this, he symbolizes the hope that people can change for the better and that they can transcend their prescribed class and gender roles. Tommy’s death at the end of the story completes his Christ arc and symbolizes the power of Christian redemption. Clinging to Tommy, Kentuck joyously follows his savior into the afterlife, unafraid of death.
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