THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP

After reading “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” what struck me about this reading was that there was no true female in the story. Most of the pieces we have read this year entailed of a young girl, or a young girl and her mother. Every female was different: some were poor and lived on the streets, some were ugly, some were pretty, some were crazy and some were wealthy, but never did we encounter a female prostitute of any sort. The one woman that was mentioned in, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" was looked down upon by the entire community. I'm sure it did not help that she was the only female, so practically an outcast since she could not easily relate to the men, and the men found it hard to accept her simply because she was mentally and physically different. Even though when she dies giving birth to the only baby that Roaring Camp has ever seen or had, they make it clear they don't want another female among their presence. "It was argued that no decent woman could be prevailed to accept Roaring Camp as her home, and the speaker urged that 'they didn't want any more of the other kind.'" It is weird though how these men strongly believed that this baby, Luck, brought all the luck that Roaring Camp had ever had. This baby had come from a woman, one they looked down upon, but she gave birth to a being that brought luck to them. This baby was viewed as something of value to these men. If the baby was a girl I wonder if the circumstances would have changed. This is also we see a baby viewed in a positive way. I think this was a very interesting reading especially since this roaring camp was male dominant, which is something we aren’t use to.