The Bride Comes to YellowSky

Eastern Influences on the West

Stephen Crane’s short story “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” is a story about

Jack Porter, the town marshal, his new bride and their anticipation of going back to his

home of Yellow Sky. The story is told in the omniscient point of view, conflict and

setting. It is traditional western literature using parody and realism to depict the influence

of the East on the West.

The first basic tool of “The Bride comes to Yellow Sky” is the omniscient point of

view by the author telling us everything including why the characters are thinking, feeling,

and acting as they do. For example, when he talks about “a newly married pair” (Crane

p. 618) boarding a coach “The Pullman Train” at San Antonio, Jack Potter asks his bride

about having “ever been in a parlor car before“ (p. 618). This point of view helps us to see

a parable of the East’s invasion of the West through role changes in as small...