1. Main & Minor Characters
2. Setting
3. Plot –turning points
4. The Climax: the encounter

 How are the bride and the groom presented here? Are they a beautiful couple? Happily married? What do they feel about their formal clothing? How do they behave to the people around them as they talk about the train, look at the silver watch and go to the dining room?
 How do the people--the negro porter, the passengers and the negro waiters--on the train look at this couple?







The marshal of Yellow Sky, with a great sense of selfimportance and responsibility “at home,” but diffidence outside.
“From time to time he looked down respectfully at his attire.
He sat with a hand on each knee, like a man waiting in a barber's shop. The glances he devoted to other passengers were furtive and shy.”
When talking about the train, “He had the pride of an owner.
”
P. 7 When giving tips to the porter, he does it stiffly
“as that of a man shoeing his first horse. ”
When announcing their arrival at Yellow Sky, he does it “as one announcing death.”
Other examples on p. 7.

 Not beautiful, not named,
 “this plain, under-class countenance, which was drawn in placid, almost emotionless lines.”
 Modest and obedient (“wifely amiability ”)
 Looks at the little silver watch she gets from her husband.

 Gossip over and look down upon the couple
 The negro porter finds the Potters
“ridiculous.”
 “Two rows of negro waiters , in glowing white suits, surveyed their entrance with the interest and also the equanimity of men who had been forewarned .“

 Where is the turning point of section I? What's bothering the groom, Jack Potter, despite his happiness about the marriage?
 Potter’s worry about not telling his people about his marriage. P. 5-6
 ”The traitor to the feelings of Yellow Sky ”
 How is the second part of their journey home a contrast to the first part?
Pp. 4-5
 Instead of happiness, they show their sense of guilt, escaping home right after they get off the train.



Yellow Sky – What is it like? Compared with San
Antonio?


Yellow Sky: a frontier town, simple and not yet influenced by capitalism.
Its the brass band’s music is "painful" to the ears but a delight to the people there.


Sandy streets with a few vivid green grass plots.
(section II)
"Weary Gentleman" –empty and quiet
Why is the train (Pullman) important?
 a sign of luxury, technology and influences of the
East. (par 1)





 quiet, with only a few people and a dog
Only the busy drummer, an outsider, talks.
 with increasing fear;
 Another man: in immovable silence
Serves as a setting to

 create a sense of suspense (e.g. the door), and remind us of the stereotypes of Western (the villain, marshal and cowboy).pp. 9-10
Pay attention to the images of death and darkness; e.g. “solemn, chapel-like gloom” “darkened saloon”; the arch of a tomb over Wilson; his cries of ferocious challenge rang against walls of silence.
“the sound of a shot, followed by three wild yowls ”

Is he a villain?
1. Interested in fashion from the East
 in a maroon-colored flannel shirt, which had been purchased for purposes of decoration and made, principally, by some Jewish women on the east side of New York;
 And his boots had red tops with gilded imprints, of the kind beloved in winter by little sledding boys on the hillsides of New
England.

Is he a villain?
1.
A drunkard:
“"You see," he whispered, "this here Scratchy Wilson is a wonder with a gun -- a perfect wonder -- and when he goes on the war trail, we hunt our holes
-- naturally. He's about the last one of the old gang that used to hang out along the river here.
He's a terror when he's drunk. When he's sober he's all right -- kind of simple -- wouldn't hurt a fly
-- nicest fellow in town. But when he's drunk -whoo!" ”
1.
2.
Not welcome by the town people;
Can only scare animals. “As it occurred to him,” he roared menacing information.

 The opening paragraph
 “Historically there was supposed to be something infinitely humorous in their situation. ”