The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky - Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (1898) gives an understanding of western life through a short story of fighting and rough adventures. Crane's imagery is vivid, but the words he writes seldom provided a final interpretation. His perceptions and expressions seem as current as anything experienced to date. Crane is a storyteller who captivates a reader from his first paragraph. He touches upon innocence and experience through his writings and transformation of everyday people. The setting of the story is on a frontier of some kind in Yellow Sky, Texas. Yellow Sky is situated on the Southern Railway that bears the California Express, a primary link directly to civilization. Jack Potter and Scratchy Wilson are the main characters, and they are integral members of the social setting as they dominate social life. The story is told mostly from the third person point of view. The underlying theme of the story is changes in civilization: the dying of the old west and the merging of the eastern way of life. In this story Crane traces the train ride home of Jack Potter, who is confronted with both external and internal conflicts, from San Antonio to Yellow Sky, Texas. Jack Potter is "the town marshal of Yellow Sky
" (252). He is portrayed as a valiant man, "known, liked, and feared in his corner, a prominent person" (252). He puts his integrity into jeopardy when "he had gone to San Antonio to meet a girl he believed he loved" (252) and married her "without consulting Yellow Sky for any part of the transaction" (252). The inhabitants of Yellow Sky are not aware that any grand shift is taking place as they "innocent and unsuspecting to his actions" (252). Instead, they are so closely connected to each other that each change in their social structure is perceived as being very important. In this story, the formation of a new marriage averts potential conflict and advances the level of civility in a once uncivil environment. Their union serves as a catalyst to bring the town of Yellow Sky a little bit closer to peace. Jack is clearly anxious about the impact of his own actions and takes extraordinary measures to ensure that they are minimized as much as possible. The careful consideration to which he gives a potentially upsetting situation is offset by the extent to which he is also entirely in control of his own destiny. This is reflected by the confidence afforded him by the inmates of the Weary Gen
Some common words found in the essay are:
Yellow Sky, Jack Potter, Scratchy Wilson, Sky Texas, Weary Gentleman, yellow sky, East York, San Antonio, Wilson Scratchy, Scratchy Scratchy, California Express, jack potter, scratchy wilson, sky texas, yellow sky texas, jack potter town, life story, sky story, short story, conflict jack, town marshal, comes yellow sky, yellow sky story, potter town, potter town marshal,
Approximate Word count = 813
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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