American Short Story Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American Short Story - Research Paper Example As Michael J. Cummings (2006) maintains, the local-color writers, also called ‘local colorists’, presented their narratives in a regional dialect and â€Å"attempted to portray life in the various sections of burgeoning America. Harte, for example, focused many of his stories on the gold-mining camps and towns. However, rather than writing soberly realistic stories, local colorists tended to write stories infused with ‘eccentrics as characters’ and ‘whimsical plotting’†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Cummings) Therefore, it is fundamental to realize that Bret Harte celebrates many of his essential features as a short story writer in â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat†. This paper makes a reflective analysis of the short story by Harte in order to make out the distinguishing features of the short story, its themes, the major action, the characters, etc. As aforementioned, â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat† is a central example of the author’s c oncern for regionalism and local color. It is through the use of the Western setting and local color that Harte attempts to be a model for his contemporaries and his story is set in the rough and tumble days of the California Gold Rush.