English 372: Blog Post 5, Western TEAM WHY

For this week’s blog post we will be talking about some of the thoughts and opinions that we had with one of our short story readings: “The Luck of Roaring Camp.” More importantly we are going to be connecting the themes in this western text to other western stories as well. In “The Luck of Roaring Camp” we have a bunch of rowdy drunk men who end up changing their ways because of the birth of a new born child. This is unlike any other western type book, film or TV series I have ever seen or heard of. This is what made the story have more uniqueness compared to other cliché western novels. In addition to this you get to see the bond between a man and a child, where even the littlest things mean the world to the man (Kentuck with baby aka Tommy Luck). Showing another example of a huge difference from this western type text to others. One theme that really stood as well was the fact that the men were miners. This is an overlooked fact because when people think western they are thinking Texas, New Mexico along with other Southern states with criminal outlaws fighting against the local sheriffs or authorities due to the fact they are wanted for murder or robbery. This was a nice new touch to put on the western theme as a whole, it still contained smaller themes that fit the genre; being dirty, gambling, boozing, fighting and living in a small town. However, this author did a great job in twisting up the genre to fit a much more heart felt sad ending. Going off of the last note the ending to this film was heartbreaking. I, along with most of the audience reading could all agree we never saw a flood being the cause of the death of their new hope and good luck charm (Baby Thomas). Most western do end up in the death of a main character and it is very sorrowful and has a lot of emotion, but this ending was just different. Having a child be the heartfelt death is always hard to watch or read, but having the child as one of the main characters and the character supplying hope to an entire town has never been done in the western genre. Bret Harte did a fantastic job of creating a new and innovative western type of text, which included all the essential themes to be included in the genre, but did an even better at making it completely different and unique. I would definitely recommend this to a wide variety of crowds.