Note the symbolism at the end of the story, when the search party arrives and discovers the bodies of Piney and the Duchess:Īnd when pitying fingers brushed 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. This, too, is a lie, but it’s a lie whose untruth Simson himself is oblivious to.Īt the end of ‘The Outcasts of Poker Flat’, too, Harte invites us to have sympathy for a group of people who have lived – and died – outside the boundaries of conventional society, but who are fundamentally good. By the same token, Simson’s naïve belief that the snow will soon clear proves as infectious as Oakhurst’s ‘calm’. Oakhurst knows that Uncle Billy stole the mules and deserted them, but he is canny enough to know that feeding Simson and Piney a more hopeful lie will be more judicious than telling them the unpalatable truth. At the same time, both of their ‘lies’ help to sustain the group when they become snowed in.
