The Yellow Sky Analysis

This story introduces a newly married couple on a train heading to Yellow Sky, the groom’s home town, from San Antonio. This is a Western story set sometime back in the 1800’s. His name is Jack Potter and he is the sheriff of Yellow Sky. After having left his town to obtain a wife, he returned newly married without telling the people in his town of his marriage. When he arrived at Yellow Sky, he tried to avoid people because he thought that they would start to celebrate. To his surprise Scratchy Wilson, the last gang member to live in Yellow Sky, had become drunk. Although Scratchy was a very nice person, when he gets drunk, he goes into fits of range and tries to shoot things. Typically, Jack Potter would come out and challenge him to help settle …show more content…
When Potter and his wife get on the train, they do not know how to act. Being so excited about their marriage, they are embarrassed and shy around other people and each other. Seeing as it was probably one of the first times for them to be on a train, people around them thought they were superior because of their more experienced travel. The couple also seemed to not know how to act on the train, especially together. Later, after they get off the train at Yellow Sky, the theme of ignorance appears again. They are unable to tell and react that all of the town’s people are locked away in their houses or buildings. This could only mean one thing: that Scratchy Wilson was on a rampage. Potter was so caught up in not wanting to be seen by the town’s people, that he was oblivious to the obvious signs that Wilson was shooting up the town. Another theme of ignorance comes from the drummer and his lack of knowledge about the west. The drummer is completely oblivious to what happens in the west during this time period. He becomes very paranoid and surprised that a man would go around shooting at doors when he is drunk. The drummer honestly believed that someone was going to die that