Stephen Crane's The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky

Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"

Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," as well as his other Western stories, owe much to Mark Twain's approach to the West. According to Eric Solomon, "both authors…used humor to comment on the flaws of traditional fictional processes" (237). While employing parody of the Western literary tradition, Crane also uses realism to depict the influence of the East on the West. In "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," Stephen Crane uses symbolism to develop his study of the changes effected on the West and the roles of its inhabitants by the encroachment of eastern society.

"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" is a parable of the East's invasion of the West through role changes in a small western town. This invasion is perfectly illustrated in the first setting. Crane writes, "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" (401). This, the first sentence of the story, "fixes the sensation of a train ride through a kinesthetic detail, and that detail also supplies a theme that the rest of the story will develop" (Bergon 95). The Pullman train is carrying Marshal Jack Potter and his Eastern bride back to Yellow Sky. The Marshall's role in the affairs of his town has been affected and changed by his literal marriage to the East. The Marshall is only beginning to realize the effect his arrival on the town will have. The train car is the perfect symbol of the East moving toward and imposing itself on the west.

The second setting is "a world of complete contrast to the Eastern Pullman: the setting is Western, the bar of the Weary Gentleman Saloon" (Solomon 253). The saloon contains all the necessary Western elements-- whisky, guns, barflies, and an all-knowing bartender. Crane places another sign of the encroaching east, a traveling salesman, in the bar to supply an observer to whom the local customs and roles can be explained. It is through the barkeep that we learn of the "customary epic drunks of Scratchy Wilson that disturb the dozing atmosphere" (Solomon 253).

The symbolism is tightly, almost rigidly organized. The train represents the East; the saloon represents the West. The two most important ironic symbols are, however, Wilson and Potter. Jack Potter, the town marshal, has left Ye...

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...is wife" (Solomon 252). Potter has ignored his role as Marshal and is unarmed. Scratchy's pretend world is shattered: "There ain't a man in Texas ever seen you without no gun. Don't take me for no kid" (Crane 409). Stunned by the news of the marriage, Scratchy is quick to grant that "I s'pose it's all off now" (Crane 409). The news of marriage resigns Scratchy to his former role of town bum; he shuffles off. Scratchy is the first to meet Potter's Eastern bride, and this catalyst wreaks havoc on his world.

Thus, "The Bride comes to Yellow Sky" is a study of changing roles in the West. Jack Potter, the Marshal, reluctantly accepts his new role and tries to fit in, while

Scratchy Wilson cannot face his. Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" uses symbolism to illustrate the effect of Eastern Society on the West.

Works Cited

Bergon, Frank. Stephen Crane's Artistry. New York:CUP, 1975.

Crane, Stephen. "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Ed. Thomas Arp. 7th ed. Fort Worth:Harcourt, 1998.

Gibson, Donald. The Fiction of Stephen Crane. Carbondale: SIUP, 1968.

Solomon, Eric. Stephen Crane: From Parody to Realism.