Roaring Camp Essay -- essays research papers

The Regeneration of Roaring Camp "And so the work of regeneration began is Roaring Camp"(9). The regeneration referred to takes place in a California mining camp in 1850 after the birth of Tommy Luck, son of Cherokee Sal, the camp’s prostitute, who died giving birth. Sometimes one doesn’t realize how much he needs to change until he gets a subtle push from fate. Just a little addition to the world can cause a regeneration of a lifetime. Bret Harte demonstrates this idea in the story "The Luck of Roaring Camp." In this story, Bret Harte shows that even the roughest men can regenerate into kind, gentle, wholesome people, with the love of a child. "The term "roughs" applied to them was a distinction rather than a definition(3). The men of Roaring Camp live the way they please. They have no rules or regulations, nobody to impress, and nobody to tell them what to do or how to act. "The assemblage numbered about one hundred men. One or two of these were actual fugitives from justice, some were criminal, and all were reckless"(2). The men of Roaring Camp were unruly and all it takes is the love of an infant to change the rude into responsible. Roaring Camp will go through a regeneration of a lifetime. All of the men at the mining camp will strive to make Roaring Camp a suitable place for a baby to live. The very first signs that the men are in the process of change...