The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky Essay

The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky Essay, Research Paper Crane’s Use of Ironic Symbolism in “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 Fischer 2 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 Yellow Sky to marry his bride in secret. Potter is very self-conscious of “his change from his formal role as the lone marshal, ever ready for a fight” (Solomon 252). Potter is embarrassed in the great eastern train car. He is not accustomed to the fancy Victorian environment, and neither is his wife. Potter is also worried about the act of his marriage itself. He felt “the shadow of a deed weigh upon him like a leaden slab. He, the town marshal of Yellow Sky, a man known, liked, and feared in his corner? [had married] without consulting Yellow Sky for any part of the transaction” (Crane 403). Potter had defiled the idea of

the “Marshal, a figure fearsome and independent” (Solomon 252). Potter also ignored the Western tradition of partnership and consulting one’s friends before marriage. He has told no one and is quietly attempting to sneak his bride back into town. This bride is the catalyst of change that is sure to wreak havoc on the social structure of Yellow Sky, and Potter knows it. Potter’s “opposite, Scratchy Wilson cannot face his own two roles” (Solomon 252). Where Potter has realized and is attempting to accept his new role, Scratchy will do nothing of the kind. Scratchy is the town’s drunken bum. The occupants of the town are Fischer 3 terrified as he rages up and down the street. Scratchy is, however, almost comical in his decorative shirt and fancy boots. Though he