Short Fiction · Chapter
A Blackjack Bargainer explained
Yancey Goree, a disreputable lawyer and broken gambler, has lost everything to the courthouse poker gang and now lives in poverty and alcoholism.
What happens
Yancey Goree, a disreputable lawyer and broken gambler, has lost everything to the courthouse poker gang and now lives in poverty and alcoholism. The Garveys, a backwoods couple who struck it rich selling their land for mica, buy the old Goree homestead and later approach Goree to purchase his family feud with the Coltranes for two hundred dollars, hoping to gain social status among the mountain quality.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Wealth
The Garveys attempt to buy social status by purchasing the Goree feud, illustrating how wealth can be used to acquire class markers.
Ambition and Failure
Yancey Goree's ambition has led to ruin, while the Garveys' ambition for social climbing drives the plot.
Crime and Consequence
The feud tradition involves a history of violence and murder, and Pike Garvey's moonshining and prison sentence reflect criminal consequences.
Characters to notice
- Yancey Goree
The last male heir of the Goree family, a broken gambler and drunkard who has lost his inheritance, home, and self-respect.
- Pike Garvey
A backwoods squirrel hunter and moonshiner who, with his wife, sold their land for a fortune and bought the Goree homestead.
- Martella Garvey
Pike Garvey's wife, who desires social status and pushes to buy the Goree feud to gain acceptance among the quality.
- Colonel Abner Coltrane
The last male supporter of the Coltrane side of the feud, a man of substance and a member of the State Legislature.
Key passages
“The most disreputable thing in Yancey Goree’s law office was Goree himself, sprawled in his creaky old armchair.”
Yancey Goree, lounging in his worn-out chair, was the most shameful object in his own law office.
Establishes Goree's degraded state and the setting.
“The treading out of that path had cost Goree all he ever had—first inheritance of a few thousand dollars, next the old family home, and, latterly the last shreds of his self-respect and manhood.”
Walking that path to the courthouse had cost Goree his inheritance, his home, and ultimately his dignity.
Summarizes Goree's downfall due to gambling.
“‘Take the money, then,’ says Missis Garvey, ‘and buy Mr. Goree’s feud, fa’r and squar’.’”
Mrs. Garvey insists on purchasing the Goree feud outright with cash.
Key moment where the feud is commodified.