The Luck of Roaring Camp

by

Bret Harte

Kentuck Character Analysis

A main character in the story, Kentuck is one of Roaring Camp’s gruffest, most unrefined residents—but he’s also fiercely devoted to and enamored with little baby Luck. He’s known for never washing his clothes, his language is marked by a heavy Western twang, and he puts up a front of hypermasculinity—in other words, he’s the quintessential Western outlaw. While all the men help take care of the Luck and dote on him to some extent, Kentuck especially falls in love with the baby and willingly cleans up his act (he literally changes into a clean shirt and cuts expletives out of his language) for the sake of the baby. Kentuck’s character arc shows most clearly how baby Luck gives the Roaring Camp men permission to engage with a softer, more sensitive side of themselves and drop their hypermasculine masks. Given Kentuck’s particularly strong affection for baby Luck, it’s fitting that he and the Luck die in an embrace. This moment implies that Kentuck was trying to protect the Luck during the flood and seemingly sacrificed his own life in the attempt to do so—but on a deeper level, it speaks to how the two were practically inseparable. When Kentuck dies in the final lines of the story, he seems contented that he is following the Luck into death, which again emphasizes the pair’s strong bond and Kentuck’s deep, enduring, and perhaps unexpected love for the baby.

Kentuck Quotes in The Luck of Roaring Camp

The The Luck of Roaring Camp quotes below are all either spoken by Kentuck or refer to Kentuck. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Sin, Redemption, and Children Theme Icon
).
The Luck of Roaring Camp Quotes

Stumpy imposed a kind of quarantine upon those who aspired to the honor and privilege of holding “The Luck.” It was a cruel mortification to Kentuck—who, in the carelessness of a large nature and the habits of frontier life, had begun to regard all garments as a second cuticle, which, like a snake’s, only sloughed off through decay—to be debarred this privilege from certain prudential reasons. Yet such was the subtle influence of innovation that he thereafter appeared regularly every afternoon in a clean shirt, and face still shining from his ablutions.

Related Characters: Kentuck, Stumpy
Related Symbols: Tommy Luck (“The Luck”)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:

The winter of 1851 will long be remembered in the foothills. The snow lay deep on the Sierras, and every mountain creek became a river, and every river a lake. Each gorge and gulch was transformed into a tumultuous watercourse that descended the hillsides, tearing down giant trees and scattering its drift and debris along the plain. Red Dog had been twice under water, and Roaring Camp had been forewarned. “Water put the gold into them gulches,” said Stumpy. “It’s been here once and will be here again!” And that night the North Fork suddenly leaped over its banks, and swept up the triangular valley of Roaring Camp.

Related Characters: Stumpy (speaker), Kentuck
Related Symbols: Tommy Luck (“The Luck”), The Flood
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

Kentuck opened his eyes. “Dead?” he repeated feebly. “Yes, my man, and you are dying too.” A smile lit the eyes of the expiring Kentuck. “Dying,” he repeated, “he’s a taking me with him,—tell the boys I’ve got the Luck with me now”; and the strong man, clinging to the frail babe as a drowning man is said to cling to a straw, drifted away into the shadowy river that flows forever to the unknown sea.

Related Characters: Kentuck (speaker)
Related Symbols: Tommy Luck (“The Luck”)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
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Kentuck Quotes in The Luck of Roaring Camp

The The Luck of Roaring Camp quotes below are all either spoken by Kentuck or refer to Kentuck. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Sin, Redemption, and Children Theme Icon
).
The Luck of Roaring Camp Quotes

Stumpy imposed a kind of quarantine upon those who aspired to the honor and privilege of holding “The Luck.” It was a cruel mortification to Kentuck—who, in the carelessness of a large nature and the habits of frontier life, had begun to regard all garments as a second cuticle, which, like a snake’s, only sloughed off through decay—to be debarred this privilege from certain prudential reasons. Yet such was the subtle influence of innovation that he thereafter appeared regularly every afternoon in a clean shirt, and face still shining from his ablutions.

Related Characters: Kentuck, Stumpy
Related Symbols: Tommy Luck (“The Luck”)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:

The winter of 1851 will long be remembered in the foothills. The snow lay deep on the Sierras, and every mountain creek became a river, and every river a lake. Each gorge and gulch was transformed into a tumultuous watercourse that descended the hillsides, tearing down giant trees and scattering its drift and debris along the plain. Red Dog had been twice under water, and Roaring Camp had been forewarned. “Water put the gold into them gulches,” said Stumpy. “It’s been here once and will be here again!” And that night the North Fork suddenly leaped over its banks, and swept up the triangular valley of Roaring Camp.

Related Characters: Stumpy (speaker), Kentuck
Related Symbols: Tommy Luck (“The Luck”), The Flood
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

Kentuck opened his eyes. “Dead?” he repeated feebly. “Yes, my man, and you are dying too.” A smile lit the eyes of the expiring Kentuck. “Dying,” he repeated, “he’s a taking me with him,—tell the boys I’ve got the Luck with me now”; and the strong man, clinging to the frail babe as a drowning man is said to cling to a straw, drifted away into the shadowy river that flows forever to the unknown sea.

Related Characters: Kentuck (speaker)
Related Symbols: Tommy Luck (“The Luck”)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis: