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myth of the western frontier
reflections on the us frontier essay
myth of the western frontier
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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 needed to be blazed, and Indians to be fought. To overcome such hardships and obstacles, men needed to be just as tough, rugged, and untamed as the landscape that they braved. In a time when American people needed heroes, those men who conquered the Western frontier became the objects of admiration and wonder. Furthermore, they set a standard of physical strength and violent self-reliance to be met by anyone who decided to settle in the West for it was a place of toughness, 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, though, their voices are only part of a discourse of voices in the story that eulogizes the death of the Old West and the coming of civilization. Even as it celebrates the Old West, Crane's story ambivalently dramatizes its passing.
Included in the collection of voices in "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" are those of the drummer and the bartender of the Weary Gentleman saloon. The town of Yellow Sky has, of course, a typical frontier saloon where the men gather to drink whiskey. The barkeeper's dog lounges outside the front door, taking in the scene of a dusty little town whose name, Yellow Sky, even suggests that the town is a part of a natural landscape that is vast but beautiful. When shooting suddenly starts in the street, the reader discovers with the drummer how quickly a sleepy Old Western town can turn violent. Scratchy Wilson is responsible for the shooting, the barten...
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...d West desperado.
The last vestige of this desperado is the ritual that he participates in when he fights Potter in the street. In his confrontation with Potter and the bride, though, even that is taken away. The idea of marriage is so foreign to Scratchy that he decides "'it's all off now'" (122). More than one particular fight is off. Everything that was once traditional in Yellow Sky is also off. Civilization has tamed Scratchy Wilson and Jack Potter -- the last men from the Old West.
With wry humor, then, Stephen Crane marks the passing of the Old West in "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." But one thing still remains and endures: the myth that Crane both mourns and celebrates.
Works Cited
Crane, Stephen. "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." 1925. Short Story Masterpieces. Ed. Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine. New York: Laurel, 1982. 110-122.
Although Brandy does not go on direct binges, she does pig out on candy and related junk food occasionally. Second, she tries to eat healthy and has defaulted to purging in order to stay skinny. Therefore, Brandy meets the second condition on the DSM-5 checklist for bulimia nervosa: “inappropriate behavior in order to prevent weight gain” (Comer, 2013, p.320). Nonetheless, instead of her symptoms lasting longer than a week, the side-effects of her condition continue endlessly. Lastly, all the signs and symptoms negatively impact Brandy’s self-esteem and self-concept. One could say the entire problem has an “undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation” (Comer, 2013, p.320). For example, Brandy believes no one wants to be around her because they are disgusted by her weight and overall appearance. Therefore, she shuts herself off from her friends and society. When individuals start paying too much attention, she begins to feel nervous and
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. The New England Magazine. Reprinted in "Lives & Moments - An Introduction to Short Fiction" by Hans Ostrom. Hold,
The enduring cultural expressions of the frontier were adapted into unique narrative traditions known as the “Western”. The Western genre portrays a story of conquest, competing visions of the land, and the quintessential American frontier hero who is usually a gunfighter or a cowboy. These Western archetypes can be observed in, The Outlaw Josey Wales, a film that employs revenge motifs that lead into and extended chase across the West and touches on the social and cultural issues of the American frontier.
Carroll, Kathleen L. Ceremonial Tradition as Form and Theme in Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven": A Performance-Based Approach to Native American Literature. Midwest Modern Language Association, 2005.
Tompkins, Jane. West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
In the 1930's Native Americans and women were viewed as inferior races. The films produced during the early part of the 20th century, particularly those starring John Wayne reflected these societal attitudes. The portrayal of minorities in Stagecoach and Fort Apache clearly reflect the views of society at that time. The depiction of the West is similar to that which is found in old history textbooks, em...
All in all, the treatment of the American Indian during the expansion westward was cruel and harsh. Thus, A Century of Dishonor conveys the truth about the frontier more so than the frontier thesis. Additionally, the common beliefs about the old west are founded in lies and deception. The despair that comes with knowing that people will continue to believe in these false ideas is epitomized by Terrell’s statement, “Perhaps nothing will ever penetrate the haze of puerile romance with which writers unfaithful to their profession and to themselves have surrounded the westerner who made a living in the saddle” (Terrell 182).
White, David. It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Rediscoveries: American Short Stories by Women, 1832 - 1916. Ed. Barbara H. Solomon. New York: Mentor, 1994. 480-496.
One of those traits is that although Athenian citizens and soldiers live a more leisurely life and are not trained as rigorously as the Spartans in land warfare, Athenians’ natural courage makes up for that (Thucydides pg. 42). Athens was definitely the dominant naval power in Greece at the time, but the Athenians’ devaluing of land warfare led to a stalemate in the first phase of the Peloponnesian War before the Peace of Nicias in which Sparta ravaged Athens’ countryside and forced its citizens to be holed up in the city walls and to live in close quarters, making them susceptible to the plague. Another trait of Athens that can be argued as not a positive factor is its institution of democracy. Athenian democracy was quite limited in the modern sense since its citizenry only included ethnic Athenian males over the age of 20, but it was remarkable in the ancient world for the amount of civic participation it allowed of those that it considered citizens. The Athenians prided themselves on including people of lower economic status into the citizenry, but this trait may be not as positive as Pericles proclaimed (Thucydides pg. 40). In an oligarchic system such as Sparta’s, if the city-state was to win a war, it
The EPA estimates that secondhand smoking is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respitory infections in infants and children under 18 months of age yearly, which result in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to have reduced lung function and symptoms like coughing, excess phlegm, and wheezing. Secondhand smoking can lead to a buildup of fluid in the middle ear, the most common cause of hospitalized children for an operation.
In the years following the Persian Wars in 479 B.C., Athens had come out on top being the most dominantly powerful of any Greek city with a navy that had superior strength that increased day by day. The Athenians “ruled with heavy-handed, even brutal force as well as with reason” (Kagan 2). This was due largely to the fact that Athens had a stable and effective government, which only increased their advantage in proving themselv...
On November 1st, 1871 a future pioneer of realism, Stephen Crane, was born. Stephen was born the 14th child of Mary Helen Crane and Reverend Doctor Jonathan Crane. Because his father was an elder of the Newark Methodist Church, Stephen was constantly moving between parsonages with his family. As a child Stephen was incredibly smart, teaching himself to read and write before the age of 4. His father died in 1880, and Crane’s mother took him to Asbury Park, New Jersey. There Stephen was exposed early to writing from his mother’s religious papers. Mary Crane had even lectured for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. One of Stephen’s brothers was even a reporter for the New York Tribune.
Sensationalism is described as “use of shocking material: the practice of emphasizing the most lurid, shocking, and emotive aspects of something under discussion or investigation, especially by the media” (“Sensationalism”, 2009). This has tactic has been used for ages. Whether it’s stories being told about a monster who will eat bad children, to the dangerous communist ways, sensationalism is everywhere. Sensationalism began during the era of Pulitzer and Hearst newspaper era. Their feud would introduce sensationalism to media, and impact the lives of many.
The authors mention that the west frontier people live as free from the society’s rules. Also, they had been some skills to deal with the frontier life. In addition, the authors wrote about two types of a heroic rugged individualist. For example, Daniel Boon, who explored Kentucky for two years. Moreover, he had some fighting with the native Indians, but the Americans admired Boon as the person who won in encountering the challenges of the wilderness.