Compare/Contrast Essay
Prairie View A&M University
Alia Carpenter
March 4th, 2016

Sentimentalism is a philosophical idea that our emotions provide a direct pathway to moral knowledge. A story written with sentimentalism, an important literary component that has a powerful yet emotional experience, usually in the form of sympathy. Indeed not every sentimentalism based story is identical to another, yet they usually correspond in some way.
Sentimental fiction revolves around the drama of moral regeneration. Two different stories that share multiple sentimentalism similarities are “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and “The Revolt of
Mother”. Both these great stories display signs of toughness throughout majority of the writing.
Not only do these stories display an excessive amount of toughness but emotion as well. These two stories take a flip towards the end but in two totally different ways.

“
The Luck of Roaring Camp”,
A story written by Francis Bret Harte is about a group of savagely living men who stayed on a camp referred to as Roaring Camp. Throughout this story there is a lady named Cherokee Sal who just happened to be the only women on the camp.
Cherokee Sal was in labor in the beginning of this story and passed away while giving birth to a beautiful baby boy named Luck. All of the men who were apart of this Roaring Camp decided to take care of this baby boy and raise him as their own. Throughout majority of this story they talk about how the men of Roaring Camp are rough and have no emotions at all. The Author stated
“One or two of these were actual fugitives from justice, some were criminal, and all were reckless. Physically, they exhibited no indication of their past lives and character.” Once baby
Luck came into the picture the men started showing more of a sensitive side. The men even thought about creating a hotel on Roaring Camp and bring women and children just for baby
Luck. The men of Roaring camp started showing a sign that people have never seen before, doing things that they would have never done,
“The cabin assigned to “Tommy Luck”—or “The

Luck,” as he was more frequently called—first showed signs of improvement. It was kept scrupulously clean and whitewashed. Then it was boarded, clothed, and papered.”
(Para. 16)
“The Revolt of Mother”,
Another story within Norton’s Anthology written by Mary E.
Wilkins is about a father who has been promising his wife for ages a new home for them and their kids. One day Father wakes up and decided to start building a barn and every time mother asks him about this barn he ignores her and goes on with his day. It seemed as if father had his mind made up when it came to this barn, so mother felt the need to take matters into her own hands. One morning mother woke up and decided she wasn’t taking this anymore; Mother made the decision to turn the brand new barn into a new home for her family. Mother told her kids the exact plan she had in her head and enabled them to help her move all the furniture and belongings into their new barn. The family did all this while father was out of town for his job.
When Father returned home his reaction was different than everyone expected.
“Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had no active resistance, and went down the instant the right besieging tools were used. “Why, mother,” he said, hoarsely, “I hadn't no idee you was so set on't as all this comes to.”
(Wilkins pg. )Father was so surprised about what mother and his children did that he froze. He walked into the barn with astonishment, looking at everything that his family has done. Father cared more about his wife's and children's feelings than his own at this moment which displays sentimentalism. Father apologized to mother and said he didn't realize how set she was on all of this, proving that he went from savage to soft just like the men in
“The Luck of Roaring Camp”
.
As you can see in both novels the Author started off with more of a negative appeal about both of the leading characters throughout the story, displaying negative vibes from both main

characters. Towards the end of the story both main characters showed more of a soft side towards someone they loved and also cared about. In the “
The Revolt of Mother” Mother was really upset because Father didn't care about how she felt towards the barn. Father knew for many years that he was promising to build his family a home around the same time he started building his barn. Mother tried to tell father everyday that he needs to build their family a new home because the old one is falling apart and he never acknowledged her. Once father returned from his trip and seen how much building this barn hurt mothers feelings a whole different side of him appeared. In the
“Luck of Roaring Camp”
The men acted so savagely and distrought all the time as if there isn’t a care in the world. When baby Luck was born he gave them apart of life they’ve never seen before. At the end of the
“Luck of Roaring Camp” the men go through a very bad natural disaster which causes a lot of them to die. One of the main characters and baby luck are about to past away and the man shows tremendous amount of love towards the baby.
Both
“The Revolt of Mother” “Luck of Roaring Camp” and showed a lot of examples of sentimentalism throughout their story than any other literary component.

Works Cited Harte, Francis Bret.
The Luck of Roaring Camp
. Seventh ed. Vol. C. N.p.: Harvard
Classics Shelf of Fiction, 1917. The Norton Anthology American Literature. Wilkins, Mary E.
The Revolt of Mother
. Seventh ed. Vol. C. New York: Harpers and
Brothers, 1891. The Norton Anthology American Literature.