Voices from the Past in The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Once upon a time there was the West, and the West was wild. Trails had to be made and the Indians had to be fought. To overcome such difficulties and obstacles, men had to be as tough, rugged and wild as the landscape they faced. In a time when the American people needed heroes, those men who conquered the Western frontier became objects of admiration and wonder. Furthermore, they set a standard of physical strength and violent self-confidence that anyone who chose to settle in the West because it was a place of tenacity, conflict and courage. In Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", Scratchy Wilson and Jack Potter seem to possess those qualities required of a "Western man". Through their voices, the legend of the West emerges in Crane's story. At the same time, however, their voices are only part of a discourse of voices in history that praise the death of the Old West and the coming of civilization. Even as it celebrates the Old West, Crane's story ambivalently dramatizes its demise. Included in the collection of voices for "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" are those of saloon drummer and bartender Weary Gentleman. The town of Yellow Sky has, of course, a typical frontier saloon where men gather to drink whiskey. The bartender's dog relaxes outside the front door, taking in the scene of a dusty town whose name, Yellow Sky, even suggests that the town is part of a vast but beautiful natural landscape. When street shooting suddenly begins, the reader and the drummer discover how quickly a sleepy town in the old Western can turn violent. Scratchy Wilson is responsible for the shooting, the bartender...... middle of paper ......d West desperado. The last trace of this desperado is the ritual he participates in when he fights Potter on the street. In his confrontation with Potter and the bride, however, this too is taken away from him. The idea of ​​marriage is so foreign to Scratchy that he decides "'it's all over now'" (122). More than one fight in particular is interrupted. Everything that was once traditional in Yellow Sky is also off. Civilization has tamed Scratchy Wilson and Jack Potter, the last men of the Old West. With wry humor, then, Stephen Crane marks the demise of the Old West in "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." But one thing remains and still persists: the myth that Crane mourns and celebrates at the same time. Works Cited Crane, Stephen. "The bride comes to the yellow sky." 1925. Masterpieces of short stories. Ed. Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine. New York: Laurel, 1982. 110-122.