Reading Notes W3: "Luck of the Roaring Camp", Part A

Characters:

The Luck of Roaring Camp was an interesting story that gave me a new perspective about life in the early days. The story introduced a plethora of different characters all of which have different personalities. The first character is Cherokee Sal, who is the only woman who is on Roaring Camp. The men are somewhat scared of her and is called a "sinful woman" In the story Cherokee Sal gives birth too her son Tommy Luck, but unfortunately dies in childbirth. Tommy Luck is put into the hands of another person in the camp named Stumpy. Stumpy is a proud man, and he is loved by the rest of the men on the camp. There are a few other characters, like Oakhurst who comes up with the name for Tommy Luck, and Kentuck who tries to save Tommy later in the story.

Plot:

The Plot revolves around Cherokee Sal giving birth to her son Tommy Luck. During the childbirth Cherokee Sal dies, and Tommy Luck is put into the care of Stumpy. The men on the camp are unsure what to do, since there are no women on the camp the baby can not be raised correctly. The camp considers taking the child to another camp called Red Dog, because there are women on that camp that can raise the child. The men decide that the best option is to keep the child, and feed him milk from a donkey for the time being. The men make preparations for Tommy Luck by decorating him a room, making sure he was attend to, and having all the men within the camp clean themselves up and wear at least minimal clothing whilst the child was within the camp. Over time the camp became a clean place to live and the gold was plentiful. As winter came the conditions around the camp became worse. The snow was deep and as such made it harder to find their gold. Then out of nowhere a deluge hit the town and caused major confusion and discord within the camp. After this they go to a riverbank to find a man known as Kentuck and Tommy Luck sitting close by. Tommy Luck is dead, and soon after being found, Kentuck is dead as well. Kentuck's final words are "Luck is taking me with him" and he passes on.

Personal Thoughts:

Too me the story has a theme that depicts the cycle of life. With the birth of Tommy Luck comes great deeds for the rest of the camp, and because of all the great things that happen after his birth, the entire town becomes happier. They are better fed, better equipped and become better people because of Tommy Luck being in their presence. Eventually they begin to take this for granted, and the happiness that Tommy Luck brought must come to an end. The winter deluge was natures way of putting things back in order, since Tommy Luck should have never been motherless in a camp full of miners. The deluge takes away Kentuck and Tommy Luck, and since the the story ends here you are left to wonder if the town becomes as bad as it was before Tommy Luck arrived, or if the miners learned from having the child within their camp and became better people because of it.