Analysis of The Bridge Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane
...e break in that door?’” (94) He is probably from the city and has never experienced the kind of trouble that an old bandit can bring. Scratchy Wilson is a little bit of an older man. He is the last of his kind left over from the age of the Old West. The way the locals in the Weary Gentleman react to the news of his coming tells me a few things. The sheepherders immediately leave through the back. The other men in the bar lock up the front door and wait for his arrival. They don’t seem to be terrified of him. On the contrary, it almost seems like they are playing a game for old times’ sake. When we first actually see Scratchy, he is wearing a nice shirt that the story says is “for purposes of decoration” (96). This tells me that Scratchy is especially dressed up for this occasion. He is out looking for a fight. Scratchy never harms anyone during the story. It says that he is an incredible shot, but it seems like he never wants to harm anyone. Even at the end of the story, he backs down from a gun fight when he learns that Potter was just married. The city of Yellow Sky is a shell of what once was a city of bandits and great heroes. There are many things in this story that give you a feeling of this. The name of the town itself Yellow Sky brings out feelings of the past. This is a one horse town and nothing exciting really happens other than when Scratchy gets drunk. The tavern in the story is named the Weary Gentleman. This is a bar for the townsfolk to come to after a hard day of labor: “One was a drummer who talked a great deal and rapidly; three were Texans who did not care to talk at that time; and two were Mexican sheepherders, who did not talk as a general practice in the Weary Gentleman.” (94) This setting helps to further the theme of the new world versus the old world by laying down a tone for the story that helps to put the reader in the story. The plot of The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky is driven by three sections of a story that happen simultaneously that lead to the fourth section. He effectively uses these first three sections of the story to build anticipation for the final showdown between Jack Potter and Scratchy Wilson. The first section of the story is about Jack Potter and his new wife coming home for the first time. They are on a train headed for Yellow Sky and are both very anxious to arrive at their destination. Jack is nervous about how the town will react to his new wife: “[Jack Potter]… had actually induced her to marry him, without consulting Yellow Sky for any part of the transaction. He was now bringing his bride before an innocent and unsuspecting community.” (92) It does not really talk much about how his new wife is feeling. That is probably because when this was written, women were still seen as inferior by many men and probably by Mr. Crane himself. The story then goes from this very nice, new train to the run down tavern called the Weary Gentleman. This is where we are first told about Scratchy Wilson. We learn here that Potter had once shot Scratchy in the leg. The people in the tavern are afraid enough of Scratchy to lock their doors, but they are not terrified of him. They know that he is looking for trouble, and they do not want to confront him. This builds up until a shot is heard in the distance. The third section is about Scratchy Wilson. He is basically walking around the town looking for Potter because he wants a gun fight: “There was no offer of fight – no offer of fight. The man called to the sky. There were no attractions. He bellowed and fumed and swayed his revolvers here and everywhere.” (96) He shoots at a dog to scare it. He then tries to go to the Weary Gentleman, but they door is locked. He then shoots at a small piece of paper and barely misses it. He wants a gun fight, so ...