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Tommy Luck (“The Luck”)
The massive winter flood that sweeps through Roaring Camp at the end of the story has two levels of symbolic significance. On the surface, it symbolizes the unique brutality and power of the American West’s landscape. Roaring Camp is nestled deep in the rugged terrain of Northern California in a triangular valley surrounded on two sides by steep hillsides and on one side by a river. But when the snow and rains arrive in the winter of 1851, the terrain becomes even more dangerous: “every mountain creek became a river, and every river a lake. Every 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.” Here, the already rugged natural landscape transforms into a violent battleground with “the confusion of rushing water, crushing trees, crackling timber, and the darkness which seemed to flow with the water and blot out the fair valley […].” The men’s confusion and the deafening noise of cracking wood is reminiscent of confused soldiers hearing the crack of gunshots in the darkness. The men of Roaring Camp are tough as they come—but even they are rendered powerless against the Western landscape. In the end, “little could be done to collect the scattered camp.”
However, the flood also symbolizes the idea that luck is an ebb and flow—that good fortune comes and goes in waves just like waters in the river that sometimes spill out into the valley. After the nearby settlement of Red Dog is flooded twice—and Roaring Camp is warned that they’re next—Stumpy declares, “Water put the gold into them gulches […] It’s been here once and will be here again.” With this, Stumpy speaks to the idea that the floods—bad luck—has happened before and will happen again. He also highlights how this flooding, or bad luck, is precisely what “put the gold into them gulches” (the story is set during the California Gold Rush), or led to good luck. In other words, life is a constant push and pull of good and bad fortune, and all people can do is surrender and ride the wave.
The Flood Quotes in The Luck of Roaring Camp
The The Luck of Roaring Camp quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Flood. 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:
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The Luck of Roaring Camp
Quotes
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.
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In the confusion of rushing water, crushing trees, and crackling timber, and the darkness which seemed to flow with the water and blot out the fair valley, but little could be done to collect the scattered camp. When the morning broke, the cabin of Stumpy nearest the river-bank was gone. Higher up the gulch they found the body of its unlucky owner; but the pride, the hope, the joy, the Luck, of Roaring Camp had disappeared.
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The Flood Symbol Timeline in The Luck of Roaring Camp
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Flood appears in The Luck of Roaring Camp. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Luck of Roaring Camp
...Red Dog, has just been flooded twice. When Stumpy first heard this warning of potential flooding, though, he said, “Water put the gold into them gulches […] It’s been here once...
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The flood begins, and Roaring Camp descends into chaos: it’s pitch-black, and the camp is filled with...
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