Nasty Trick in Stephen Crane's The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
"The great Pullman was whirling onward with such dignity of motion that a glance from the window seemed simply to prove that the plains of Texas were pouring eastward" (91). Boom! We're on a train witnessing the liquid landscape of Texas. This fact is all Stephen Crane chooses to tell us. In fact, he doesn't even use the word "train" until the ninth paragraph when he is writing dialogue for the man who is the betrothed to the woman implied in the title of the piece, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." We learn in the second paragraph that the couple is on a coach from San Antonio and that "the man's face was reddened from many days in the wind and the sun" (91). We also learn that the "bride was not pretty, nor was she young" and it would seem that this couple are rather out of place on this coach speeding away from San Antonio (91). Crane is up to something. Don't think he's going to leave them on this train. No, I am here to inform you that he has a nasty little trick up his sleeve and his goal is to "deceive to delight"; he is going to try a fast bait and switch, dangling the barbed hook before your startled imagination, and then, when you least expect it, he plans to go for the kill, jerking the carpet out from beneath your very feet.
The couple "were evidently very happy" (91). The "man's face in particular beamed with an elation that made him appear ridiculous to the negro porter" (92). It would seem that this handyman "bullied" them in ways to which they seemingly naïve. In fact, everything about this couple seems naïve, simple, unsophisticated. She tells him the time "with a shy and clumsy coquetry" which causes a passerby to grow "excessively sardonic" and...
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... of Yellow Sky to learn of Potter's new marriage. Upon bearing witness to this fact, a befuddles Scratchy replies "Well, I s'pose it's all off now," and, "placing both weapons in their holsters," his feet make "funnel-shaped tracks in the sand" as they carry him out of the story, the covers of the book folding shut on this scene (99). And this, I suppose, explains that nasty little trick Cain had up his sleeve, his goal of "deceiving to delight" accomplished with whatever degree of success the reader is willing to grant him, his fast bait and switch ploy holding up an "innocent and unsuspecting" simpleton only to, with deft slight of pen, transform him into a hero before our unsuspecting eyes.
Works Cited:
Crane, Stephen. "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." Literature: The Human Experience. 8th ed. Ed. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz. Boston: Bedford, 2002. 91-99.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 2011. Print.
The final transition speaks the most towards the overall emotional connection of the story. “He painted a sign saying LOVE and hung it from the pole and another that said FORGIVE? And then he died in the hall with the radio on and we sold the house to a young couple who yanked out the pole and sticks and left them by the road on garbage day.” The sudden transitions are once again stated nonchalantly, to downplaying the multiple events this sentence
Erdich , Louise “The Red Convertible” 1984.Schalfel and Ridl 126 – 133. Schakel, Pete, and Jack Ridl. Eds. Approaching Literature Reading + Thinking + Writing. 3rd Ed. Boston: Bedford/ St Martin, 2011. Sprint.
...aving them with only a few places to get aid which resulted in many people not getting the help they needed. Hersey tells the reader this so they get the full impact of an atomic bomb.
Leslie Marmon Silko. “Yellow Woman.” The Seagull Reader: Stories, Second Edition. Ed. Joseph Kelly. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2008. 427-437.
Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24.
Clearly, Emily was tired of men controlling her, and although she could not control them while they were alive, she did have complete control over them when they died. Thirty years after Homer's disappearance and after Emily's demise, the villagers made a gruesome discovery; they found the remains of Homer, proving that Emily found a way to keep him and control him. "For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin." Indeed, Emily kept her lover and controlled her lover for thirty years.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction To Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th Ed. New York, Norton, 1998. 2: 630-642.
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 354-65. Print.
It has been known since the beginning of time that not all people have the same brain function, social graces or self control. Children have daydreamed, been distracted, wiggled and have been routinely disruptive in classrooms. The condition dubbed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a new name for old behaviors. It has only been the last 40 or so years that these behaviors have become known as a disorder. They were previously accepted, on the most part, as common childhood behavior that would be outgrown. The controversy over the treatment, Ritalin, during the 1960s is when ADHD became well known (Conrad 563). Before that children and their families managed to survive without the labeling and medicating of children who didn’t fit perfectly into the mold. The brain function of a child with ADHD may be different, but who’s to say that difference needs to be changed. The person with ADHD still gets the job done, just differently, with a lot more effort and creativity. There are many who benefit from an ADHD diagnosis, the child is not always one of them.
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, more commonly referred to as simply ADHD, is the most commonly diagnosed disorder among American children today. According to the National Institute on Mental Health an estimated 3 to 5 percent of school age children are affected by this disorder. (1) There are more diagnosed cases of ADHD of in the United States than there are anywhere in the world. The main symptoms of ADHD include "developmentally inappropriate levels of attention, concentration, activity, distractibility, and impulsivity." (1) While the number of people diagnosed with ADHD increases dramatically every year, there is still much about the disorder that is not understood. While scientists have deduced that ADHD originates in the brain, they still have many questions about the nature of it. The classification of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has become quite a controversial topic in American society today. There are some who believe that by recognizing the symptoms associated with the disorder as ADHD; science is simply putting a band-aid on a problem that could be otherwise corrected with behavior modification.
Over the past couple of years there has been a vast increase in the number of Americans suffering from ADHD. ADHD has become a hot topic of discussion for the public resulting in rising attention and concern. The way health professionals go about treating and making sure they properly treat patients suffering from ADHD is by thoroughly assessing the patient. As this disorder became more known, it resulted in more parents becoming more aware and realizing that their student’s poor performance in school or behavioral problems might not be intentional.
As time went on pieces from Emily started to drift away and also the home that she confined herself to. The town grew a great deal of sympathy towards Emily, although she never hears it. She was slightly aware of the faint whispers that began when her presence was near. Gossip and whispers may have been the cause of her hideous behavior. The town couldn’t wait to pity Ms. Emily because of the way she looked down on people because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she never thought she would be alone the way her father left her.
Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. Eight ed. Vol. C. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2012. 790-804. Print.