Enigma's Dilemma Of Having To Put Down Her Beloved Pet Horse

The short story Enigma, revolves around a girl faced with the dilemma of having to put down her beloved pet horse. The idea behind this piece is to demonstrate how personal connection, and the loss of personal connection, influences and supports one’s life through memory and change. She, the main character, repeatedly speaks of a special bond between her and her horse, Enigma. But it doesn’t stop there, she also speaks of a connection between her and a pair of humpback whales, and later her boyfriend. The main character in the story has a deep-rooted bond with Enigma. She recognizes the bond by saying, “There is nothing to convince me to leave the horse I've spent ten years of my life with, the horse I've known longer than Serge and differently. The horse that has sensed the subtleties of my body — a nervous …show more content…
The importance of personal connection, the value of knowing someone on a different level. She sums up her story by talking about Serge, the bland character throughout the story. In the end, she learns these lessons about personal connection and applies them to Serge, tells the audience what she loves about him. She states, “[She] Marries tall and stoic small animal vet whom she loves because of the ridiculous side of him only she knows — the way he refers to himself as "Serge the Surge," the way he cheerfully sings sordid profanities when he's frustrated by someone's driving, the way he holds the blanket in both fists and tugs it up to his chin when he's sleeping in on Saturdays, looking as adorably boyish as a square-jawed man with greying sideburns can look” (Huebert 1). She has successfully continued to make these bonds, although this time it’s with a man and not an animal. She doesn’t describe him this way in the beginning of the story perhaps because she had to have the encounters with the whales and Enigma to be able to make this connection with a