I liked this story. I could definitely see similarities between Harte's story and the biblical story of Jesus. Although Luck's mother, Cherokee Sal, is presented as what is most likely a prostitute, she is the Mary figure of this story. She is the lone woman in Roaring Camp and she gives birth in "a rude cabin." Details such as the men visiting the baby with gifts are reminiscent of the story of Jesus's birth. Sadly, Cherokee Sal dies and the men in Roaring Camp are left to care for the baby boy.
The positive changes that Luck has on the camp also remind me of Jesus's influence. I am not completely knowledgeable of all the stories in the Bible, but I know the general gist of several stories. Jesus enacted change in his disciples and the places he visited. He taught people a new way of living and opened their eyes to their previous sinful ways.
The baby Luck also serves this purpose for the camp. His birth inspires the men to start cleaning up the camp and improving upon it. The men also start cleaning themselves up physically and mentally. They start wearing clean clothes on a regular basis and washing themselves more frequently so that they can spend time with the baby. They also start changing their language by eliminating most of their cursing. Luck also inspires the men to start seeing beauty in life. Suddenly, they care about beautiful things such as flowers. They have a new sense of wonder for the natural world that they did not possess before. The baby Luck is credited with bringing good fortune to the camp; he's essentially the light of the camp.
The clearest example of baby Luck acting as Jesus in this story comes at the very end. When Kentuck is found dying with the baby, he is conscious long enough to express his thoughts on what is happening. Suddenly, "a smile lit the eyes of the expiring Kentuck" because he recognizes that he is dying and he says that baby Luck is taking him with him. In this final paragraph, Luck guides Kentuck towards death and acts as his savior. I thought this was an interesting way to end the story. What is especially interesting about this ending is that the flood took out what were possibly the three best people in the camp (Stumpy, Kentuck, and Luck). In the Bible, great floods serve as a way to wipe the earth clean. In "The Luck of Roaring Camp," the flood kills the best people in the camp and leaves the rest. While the camp was previously experiencing its best times, it is now destroyed; Luck can not help them anymore.
There are other places in this story in which Harte seems to criticize religion. For example, the christening of Luck is led by a "satirist" and is largely a humorous show until Stumpy protests the treatment of such a momentous affair. Later, the narrator remarks that he "hesitate[s] to record the many other instances of his sagacity, which rest, unfortunately, upon the statements of prejudiced friends." To me, this comment is aimed at the accounts of Jesus's miracles. Harte seems to be saying that we cannot trust whether or not all of those stories are true because they are told by Jesus's disciples. As his disciples, all of these storytellers would be biased in that they want to present Jesus in the best light possible. The narrator in "The Luck of Roaring Camp" refuses to do the same for Luck; he says that the other stories "were not without a tinge of superstition."
I really liked this story because it could be taken at face value as an interesting story about a camp full of men or it could be interpreted as something with a much deeper meaning. Also, I think there are a lot of other meanings and interpretations to this text that have nothing to do with religion. I just thought that the religious aspect of it was interesting.
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