Stephens Cranes’ “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” is a look at how the introduction of the feminine persona and eastern culture begins to change the dime store novel version of the Old West. The marshal, Jack, is concerned that the town’s folks will be angry that he did not include them in his wedding celebration, typical of small Old West towns where everybody knew each other and their business. The symbolism associated with the private wedding, the bride’s new fancy clothes, Jack’s “new black clothes,” and the “watch” show how Jack is growing up and away from the Old West’s ways. Scratchy, the drunk, displays both the Old West’s wild attitudes and eastern clothing trends, showing how the two cultures are intersecting. In “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” setting exhibits a major role in symbolizing the changes taking place as the East flows into the Old West.
The historical significance of the train to the settling of the West brings to life the images of the East meeting West in Crane’s tale. Trains helped civilize the West by bringing commerce and creating towns along their routes. Transportation that was more comfortable and safe brought increasing numbers of women to the towns, which began to tame the West. Trains also brought eastern culture and people across the plains to the Wild West. The refinement of the train foreshadows the domestication of the West, “the environment of the new estate”(341).
In part one, Crane describes the progress of the train across the plains bringing civilization to the Wild West and creating the allusion of the new culture moving westward. Crane describes the view from the window: “little groups of frame houses, woods of light and tender trees, all were sweeping eastward”(335).Crane gives a visual description that everything is sweeping or flowing eastward. The images of the scenery express that everything is changing and moving to the eastern culture. The train is lavishly finished with shining brass, silver, and “wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil” (335).This is another signal of the shiny new. The setting shows the movement from East to West and that the West is at the cliff’s edge, about to fall into a glorious new world.
The reference to yellow in the title of the story creates the color imagery used in many old westerns movies and dime store novels. The sun typically dominates the old westerns, casting a yellow reflection in the sky. Most of the gunfights in the movies happen at noon; gunfighters always have to shade their eyes. Crane alludes to that time period by using the name Yellow Sky in his title. The name Yellow Sky also implies the time of day and the dawning of a new era. Crane goes on to describe the atmosphere of the town: “Yellow Sky is dozing” (338). The town is stereotypical of the image of the dirty, dusty, tired old western town. The name of the new hotel saloon, “Weary Gentleman,” (338) even expresses the tiredness of the gentlemen. Perhaps they are exhausted by the ways of the Old West. When compared to the city of San Antonio “the environment of the new estate,” (341) Yellow Sky is in for some big changes.
Eager readers meet Scratchy, “the last one of the old gang,” (339) who is willing to dress in the new eastern clothes but is not ready to let go of the rough and tumble ways of the Old West. Scratchy’s clothes are part Old West, and part of the new invading eastern culture. He wears a maroon shirt “made by some Jewish Women on the east side of New York” (340). He carries “heavy blue black revolvers” (340) and wears boots with “gilded imprints” (340). He is an enigma, carrying on like a gunfighter but dressing like an eastern dandy. Scratchy sees the woman with the marshal and asks, “is this the lady?” (342). The marshal explains that she is his bride. This revelation destroys Scratchy’s hope for an Old West gun fight, and he exclaims, “I s ‘pose it’s all off now” (342).
The story readies us for a gunfight while describing the changes taking place in the Old West. The gunfight never occurs, signaling the rules are already changing. The description of the scenery, as one that is sweeping eastward, creates an image of the impending intersection of two different times, as does the train’s image of opulence and newness as described earlier. Change will be hard but inevitable.