Pale Horse: a reflection

Pale Horse Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter was a long story about life in the 1920 influenza pandemic. The story highlighted the struggles that came with not only being sick, but being sick in a time of international conflict. Compounded on all this, the main character, Miranda, now also balances her love life with a soldier, Adam, and her job as a reporter, all the while having very odd and vivid dreams. Miranda, after a few work outings, and a few dates with Adam, accepts that she is, in fact, sick, and when she understands this, Adam leaves her to get ice cream. The next Time Miranda regains conciousness, however, she finds herself alone in a hospital, slipping in and out of delerium. The vivid dreams she has tackle ideas of life, death, uncertainty, and utopia. “At once it grew, flattened, thinned to a fine radiance like a great fan and curved out into a rainbow through which, Miranda , enchanted; altogether believing, looked upon a deep clear landscape of sea and sand, of soft meadow and sky, freshly washed and glistening with transparenencies of blue.” (Porter,324) This quote shows just what utopia was to Miranda. Her dreams start out very dark and disturbing, but take a much lighter turn as they progress, as she sees her loved ones that have passed on and this shines a much more hopeful light on things. This hopefullness does not last, however, as when she next wakes, she finds that the war is over, but her lover, Adam, had been called into action, and he had died in an influenza camp overseas. This destroys her. this is highlighted when she says “Adam, she said, now you need not die again, but still I wish you were here; I wish you had come back, what do you think I came back for, Adam, to be deceived like this?” (Porter,330) Miranda knows she should be very happy at her miraculous recovery, but instead she feels dejection as the reality of death and darkness settle in, and she feels nothing but sadness.