The Bride Comes to Yellow sky.

by from the story by Stephen Crane Frank Crocitto, Frank Crocitto

Though best known for The Red Badge of Courage , his classic novel of men at war, in his tragically brief life and career Stephen Crane produced a wealth of stories—among them "The Monster," "The Upturned Face," "The Open Boat," and the title story—that stand among the most acclaimed and enduring in the history of American fiction. This superb volume collects stories of unique power and variety in which impressionistic, hallucinatory, and realistic situations alike are brilliantly conveyed through the cold, sometimes brutal irony of Crane's narrative voice.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Westerns, School, Read For School, Audiobook

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Potter is on a train with his wife whom he had just married in San Antonio (Texas). He is the marshal of his town called Yellow Sky and she is bringing her home for the first time. Furtively. He doesn't want to let the people in his town to know that he is on his way home already and with a new bride to boot.

Stephen Crane doesn't directly say so, but from his superb development of characters the reader could sense the humility, simplicity and shyness of this town marshal Jack Potter.

So there he is, arriving at the town's train station, thankful that no one has anticipated his arrival. He hurries his bride to the home they will share from now on, raise their children, and perhaps grow old in together.

Unknown to them, however, something nasty is going on at Yellow Sky. The much-feared man called Scratchy Wilson, mild-mannered when sober but maniacally insane when drunk, is at a high point of intoxication. As he is wont to do when inebriated, with his hands both with pistols, he starts roaming around the town, challenging everyone to a gunfight, shooting at houses and establishments which are now closed, their occupants cowering in fear inside. How they wish their beloved marshal Jack Potter has come back from San Anton! He alone can stop this mad, sharp-shooting, double-handed pistolero as he had already once shot him in the leg.

But the marshal is not in town, and no one else is brave enough to come out and stop Scratchy. The latter, hungry for mayhem, then proceeds to Jack Potter's house, peppering it with bullets, hurling invectives and challenging his old nemesis. He will have his revenge now. But the marshal is not at home. He is, in fact, just arriving, luggage in his hands, his new wife in tow. And Scratchy sees him.

Jack Potter has no gun. He didn't need a gun to woo a lady and marry her in San Anton. Scratchy, however, has just reloaded both his pistols. He walks towards Jack Potter, his face livid, weapons still smoking hot.


OH, YOU'LL LOVE HOW THIS ENDS!

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky is Stephen Crane’s naturalistic ode to the taming of the Wild West. Crane sets his tale in three short acts; the town marshal and his bride on a Pullman car returning to Yellow Sky, patrons at a Yellow Sky bar hunkering down after learning that Scratchy Wilson, the town’s last gunman is on a drunken tear shooting up the town, and the confrontation between Scratchy and the marshal and his bride. With brilliant economy of language and subtle symbolism Crane depicts the winding down of the Wild in West. The story climaxes in a confrontation between Scratchy and the marshal with his bride when the marshal reveals that he is unarmed because he just got married, the drunken gunman is left incredulous.

”Married? Married? No!”
He was like a creature allowed a glimpse of another world. He moved a pace backward, and his arm with the revolver dropped to his side.
“Well,” said Wilson slowly, “I suppose it’s all off now.”
Placing both weapons in their holsters he went away. His feet made funnel shaped tracks in the heavy sand.

[Ashley Mlyniec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall entertaining. But I'm mad disappointed bro didn't shoot the wife at the end

[Martine Louise Skulstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only when I take a step back from the story and start to reflect on the time it was written and whereabout the plot is taking place do I realize what more this short story might be about. At first I came to the, I think, normal conclusion that maybe Potter was nervous about the change in his life as he brings his wife back to his little home town, and that the change would be how people see him and address him now that he is a husband as well as a Marshall. Then as I took a step back and looked more into it, I realized that maybe that wasn't the case at all. Like many writers from that time, the text always has to mean something greater and be more symbolic of something bigger. Or that is just what our teachers so desperately wants us to think as we read it.
I however saw the change in the Old West, and how Mr. Potter coming back home with his new wife could be a symbol of the East coming to the West and changing everything that the people of the west had ever known, and how unsure and terrified the people were of this change. And as we move through the story and get to know Wilson, who's a mean drunk who just wants to make chaos, which is probably how the East saw the West, as just a bunch of drunk cowboys trying to make a ruckus. And as Wilson comes to Mr. Potter's house and almost threatens him, he realizes that maybe he doesn't really have a choice and he can't just kill him as he stands there unarmed.
I don't know why, but the image of the movie Trigger comes to mind as I think of this. How the white man from the East comes and disturbs the society and way of life in the West. Maybe they knew that change was going to come one way or another, and it was best to let to go by somewhat peaceful?

[María]

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[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Red dead redemption vibes

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written story about a town marshal returning home with his new wife. I like how Crane eased me into the setting by opening with the couple's train ride home before jumping to the town and some typically Western danger happening there. It raised the stakes and made for a tense scene at the end. I don't love how the tension is resolved, but I like it just fine. I didn't see it coming.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of people dismiss Stephen Crane's short story as a satiric comedy, but it seems much more humorous than it actually is. The description of Jack Potter's feelings aboard the train, for instance, are too extreme for the purposes of pure parody; it is an overstatement to illuminate a fundamental change in Potter's position—from marshal to husband, and from Western townsman to a newly minted representative of the East. Therefore, I soon began to interpret the text as a grieving elegy that laments the passing of the old West whilst deploring the rise of the new, 'civilized' values of the Eastern world.

Rich with symbolism, The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky is a fairly complex story that resists easy explanation and invites re-reading, but also one from which I felt rather detached. The characters did not leave a lasting impression on me and I doubt I will remember any of it in a couple of months.

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would teach this story for several reasons. First, Stephen Crane is influential in the American canon. While he is most known for The Red Badge of Courage, this short story would provide a worthwhile study of his style and influence. It would be interesting to have students annotate the story, particularly examining the relationship between setting and character. Also, the use of symbols and choice of adjectives are interesting. The structure of the story in four episodic moments in a shifting third-person, limited point-of-view affects the reader’s understanding of what is happening and why it is happening.

[Scott Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great example of what makes a short story. The buildup, the characterization which leaves more to the imagination. The moment when the plot twists out of its track and the ending which leaves the reader thinking for days or weeks after having read it. I just covered this story with my 7th and 8th grade class and they got it.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crane perfectly describes a Texas town in a way that makes you feel like you have grown up there you're whole life. A great story that ends with a rather saddening theme. A nostalgic reminiscing by Crane for the glory days of the American West as civilization/industrialization/modernization gradually erodes the independence that the West once represented.

[Imane Boulal · Rating 3 out of 5]

.this was a quick fun read

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[Banana Fresh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it... It was kinda tense. However wtf was that ending

[Moo · Rating 1 out of 5]

So to be brutally honest: I listed to the audiobook and caught myself very quickly to finding the language and story uninteresting. When I read the description, I was excited, because I thought "this can only be interesting" and to no one's surprise, it wasn't.
The characters for me were so damn stereotypical. A man with a skill, that no one in his town has, the woman, that doesn't have any personality by his side and the token evil guy. This book just seemed like it was snatched right out of the end of a boring western movie.
I think the only thing this book has, kind of, going for itself is, that it is short. You can go through it very quickly, so the damage isn't that bad. But to be honest, if I was someone, that liked the story, I would've loved there to be more to the story. So many questions unanswered. Why did the mc leave? How did he find the woman he loved? Where is all of his emotional turmoil?... I think that is why I don't like this book. There is no emotion. The mc has done so much, that should've shaken his emotional state, but because the author wrote the "alpha man manly guy with no emotions, hard eyes and a chiseled chin, that stands above all else" the fascinating stuff is non-existent.
And yes, this was of the time, but I'm still not a fan.

[Addy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, with small reservations of velvet here and there and with steel buttons abounding. It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected to cook, dutifully.”

Stephen Crane does not just write description. He writes about a life lived. You will feel humbled by the simple yet powerful nature of his technique. In the excellent "Yellow Sky", Jack Potter brings his new wife to town as his old nemesis Scratchy Wilson, who is piss drunk, waits for him with a revolver in each hand. There's a lot of commentary here about symbolisms that underline the erosion of the West by "Eastern" values or modernity; and this might well be true because Crane (like Hemingway after him) used naturalism to talk about important social mores. But may be Crane is just interested in telling a story about simple people behaving in the only way they know they can. Nothing more, nothing less. Intellectualism be damned.

[Bud Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another classic short story by Stephen Crane. Generally, I enjoy his stories. Simple, but often filled with symbols and imagery. This story conveys thoughts about the decline of the Wild West under the increasing influence of the East.

[Tran Tien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephane amazes me by his education background. He learned to speak/write at 3, wrote poetry by age 9, and wrote prose by age 14
His family is a large family involved in education and journalism.
However, his life ended unhappy. He was in debt due to love, alcohol, and drugs.

[Brendan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of my class didn’t like this one or “Blue Hotel” as much, but I didn’t think they were bad. I rly give it 3.5 stars. It’s kinda cutesie but kinda boring; the plot intrigued me and I visualized everything well. The read isn’t amazing, but the technicality is well-executed

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A marshall and his new bride are on a train trip when while traveling through Texas they encounter a local bad guy who wants to have a gun fight. This should hold your interest just long enough to get through it.

[ECH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and pleasant

There are some dated elements here, as is common with the western genre, but I thought the ending was good.

[Oumaima Tiguint · Rating 1 out of 5]

WTF did I just read?

[Minh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is clear, easy to understand. I enjoy throughout the book: from the characters to Crane's writing skill. The ending of the story is surprising but I can accept that.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good western

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a comedy really.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Brooklyn Sr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8/5
This was a pretty good story. My fav from the writer

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and racist. Need i say more ?

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way Crane shifts the reader's expectation of conflict is akin to whiplash when used in combination with his rapid changes of settings. Overall a fun short read.

[Zeyad Waleed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dafuq did I just read! :D