Roaring Camp
Roaring CampThe 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 is when they went to
see the baby for the first time. They walked in a single file line and in an
orderly fashion. Many gave the baby a contribution. The sorry state of the
camp and the men under went change immediately after the arrival of the
baby.
"Almost imperceptibly a change came over the settlement"( 9). The
new baby was given the name Tommy Luck, but was known around the camp
as "The Luck." The men made sure that Luck was scrupulously clean. The
men decided it was time to under go changes themselves. "The reflections of
the latter...
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