An Untradtional Comic Western: A Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

A detailed Summary of An Untradtional Comic Western: A Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky is a fictitious four-part story written by Stephen Crane. This parody's story line deals with a town marshal arriving with his new bride into his western frontier home, meeting a drunk on a rampage, and narrowly escaping an inevitable gun fight. This "western" story however is not as a whole a traditional western genre, but instead can be seen as a humorous and comic story.

The plot of the story can be summed up in only a few sentences. Part one begins with Sheriff Jack Potter, the town marshal of Yellow Sky, bringing back his bride from San Antonio to Yellow Sky. The second scene deals with the town members discussing their situation with Scratchy in the Weary Gentleman saloon. Part three is when Scratchy makes his appearance; he arrives at the saloon and then makes his way to Jack's house. Scene four involves the time when the couple has almost reached their home and, Scratchy Wilson, the town drunk, approaches them and pulls out his gun. Scratchy intends to start a brawl with Jack Potter, but when Potter tells him that he has just married, Scratchy is stunned and backs down from a fight.

True this story on the surface sounds like a typical western, howev

In The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky there are some similarities to the traditional westerns. There is the traditional setting and theme, as well as the cliche of the quick draw sheriff and his antagonist. This story does a wonderful job of combining traditional westerns with humor and comedy. The major norms are demolished; the gunfight is abolished, the antagonist backs down from an inevitable fight, and the protagonist sheriff returns home an unarmed married man.

The scene for the story is traditional of other western stories. The couple's home is located in Yellow Sky, Texas. The setting helps convey the theme of East vs. West or good vs. evil. Marriage in this story seems to symbolize civilization. An example of this sudden civilization is seen now that Potter is a married man and he refuses to fight Wilson. This seems to make light of marriage; it insinuates that automatically after marriage a person and there surrounding society will convert over to civilization.

In most westerns the antagonist and protagonist seem to have a real reason to hate and a desire to fight one another. However in The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Scratchy doesn't seem to have a real reason to be opposed to Potter. They are described to be enemies, and Scratchy is said to be "his ancient antagonist."(Tibbetts, 117) Scratchy however seems to resort to fighting Potter simply because no one else in the saloon would pay him any attention and fight him. Jack appears to be the only one who will fight or even stand up to Scratchy Wilson. "Because Wilson is described as an adult who will not grow up, the confrontation between Jack and Scratchy resembles the show downs between young boys who cannot back down, but who have to assert their own lack of fear while simultaneously not provoking their opponent."(Magill, 302)

The character of Jack Potter takes himself way too seriously. He feels he has committed a crime against his home community, however it seems that the other characters do not feel the same way. Potter m

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Approximate Word count = 1360
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English