Pale Horse Pale Rider Analysis

Dreaming about Reality: A Journey into the mind of victims of WWI and The Influenza Pandemic
‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’ is a fictional retelling of Katherine Anne Porter’s own experience as an influenza survivor during World War I. Porter expresses the devastating effects the illness had on her life by chronicling a month in the life of Miranda, a reporter, as she enjoys a romance with Adam, a young Army officer, until she becomes a victim of influenza. Adam nurses her, and before she fully recovers, he has to return to his unit, unknowingly carrying the virus that ultimately causes his demise. The unique characteristic of ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’ is the penetrating depiction of Miranda’s character. Using a rich figurative language and the stream of consciousness technique within the framework of the third person point of view, Porter is able to deeply probe into the character of Miranda. By doing this, Porter constructs a surreal world of Miranda’s dream - ridden, feverish consciousness. Throughout the course of the novella, her dreams progress from the feeling of helplessness to desperation to finally the feeling of giving up. Through this series of dreams and …show more content…
By talking in the third person, she allows the reader to relate to what Miranda is going through or simply watch it happen. Porter uses Miranda’s dreams and nightmares to convey feelings felt by victims of World War I and the influenza pandemic. Dreams are subconscious thoughts which allow people to express their true feelings. Because of the candidness associated with dreams, Porter was able to convey many harsh truths about the War and pandemic that no one wanted to face. The nightmarish experiences Miranda faces are representative of the delirium inherent in suffering influenza. By illustrating these terrors, Porter connects the reader more closely to the pandemic and its widespread