The Girls of Good Fortune

By examining the experiences of outsiders and immigrants in the American West, the novel offers different models of how newcomers adapt to an established social order. In many cases, Celia and various supporting characters adopt the strategy of assimilation, conforming to the majority-white culture in order to survive in a world that is not built to recognize or honor them for their differences. Faced with widespread prejudice and outright racism, this is the best strategy that Celia and her similarly marginalized companions have found to protect themselves from harm.

In the novel, the true risks of being seen as “other” are found in the historically accurate experience of the Chinese miners of Rocks Springs and Hells Canyon, the latter of whom are brutally murdered by a gang of white horse thieves. Taken together with the difficult lives of the marginalized residents of Chinatown, these events suggests that the strategy of segregation can be a dangerous choice. In the Rock Springs massacre, the Chinese laborers are more easily targeted because their living space is concentrated in a specific area that the mob organizes to attack. In the case of the Hells Canyon massacre in which Frank Vaughan is involved, the isolation of the Chinese miners in this remote, inaccessible region along the Snake River makes them vulnerable to ambush.