The first two pages of Porter’s, Pale Horse, Pale Rider consist of Miranda being in a lucid dream state. In her dream, Miranda picks a horse to set out on a journey unknown to the reader. Additionally, there is the character of the “stranger” in her dream, but Miranda acknowledges that she has seen him before, claiming, “He is no stranger to me” (282). What do you make of this beginning scene in the story? Does the dream scene seem out of place to you, or do you think Porter is foretelling what might happen throughout the story? If so, what is your interpretation of Miranda’s dream? How do you connect the title to Miranda’s dream?
The first section of Porter’s story highlights differing opinions on the roles women take on during war. Miranda reflects on the dances she has been to for enlisted men, claiming, “I told the chaperons at those dances for enlisted men, ‘I’ll dance with them, every dumbbell who asks me, but I will NOT talk to them,’ I said, even if there is a war. So I danced hundreds of miles without opening my mouth except to say, ‘Please keep your knees to yourself’” (288). What do you make of Miranda’s refusal to talk to the enlisted men? What does this passage convey of Miranda’s feelings towards the war? By refusing to talk to the men is she refusing to do her “womanly” duty during the war?
During this section of reading, an actor approaches Miranda extremely upset about a poor review she gave him. The encounter upsets Miranda, who states, “’There’s too much of everything in this world just now. I’d like to sit down here on the curb, Chuck, and die, and never again see—I wish I could lose my memory and forget my own name…I wish—” (300). Why does Porter have this confrontation be some sort of a breaking point for Miranda? Why is Miranda so troubled that she hurt someone in this situation when there are larger issues at hand? (War, her personal symptoms of sickness, etc.)
13 thoughts on “Megan’s Reading Questions for April 7th”
I think at the beginning of the story it’s kind of telling us what she will be feeling when being sick. She feels gone, she cannot differentiate reality from fantasy. It seems to me that she is confused and award pauses when reading it maybe because of seeing so much death and knowing that she is sick.
To answer the third question I think she was at her breaking point because she was going to get sick and not knowing the body will respond much as now in today’s world at the beginning of the pandemic we all thought by getting Covid-19 we would pass away or have a huge inflection of how our bodies will respond.
To continue the stranger…I think the stranger is just like a dream like state of delirium that we talked about it in class. How the professor connected it with the book of Revelations of the End of the World. Like the vision that we get how the world would end.
1. The whole time I was reading this story, the title alone “Pale Horse ” made me think of the Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation. My mind went to Pestilence rather than Death, but, as the story progressed, I associated the rider overall with Death. I suppose Pestilence and Death could and do go hand in hand at times. I liked the start of the story since it set the tone for what we were in for. I think there is a lot of foreshadowing throughout and that the rider grows ever closer in her life. No one escapes Death. One may evade it for a while, but it will catch up to you eventually.
3. I think Porter chose this moment to be something of a breaking point for Miranda to show how when world tragedy is happening, anything can push a person over the edge. Under normal circumstances, a confrontation about a review would not trigger such an emotional response, but she is already overwhelmed by her surroundings so it pushes her over the edge. I also wonder if Porter isn’t trying to portray how oftentimes it is something personal that causes a breakdown rather than a greater world event. World events, like covid or war, will make us susceptible, but the thing which often pushes us over the edge is something personal, seemingly simply, like a human interaction. The review was also something she could control, unlike the other events in the world, and she feels guilty about adding to the suffering of another person when she understands how fragile she is and knows everyone else is during this time.
I think at the beginning of the story it’s kind of telling us what she will be feeling when being sick. She feels gone, she cannot differentiate reality from fantasy. It seems to me that she is confused and award pauses when reading it maybe because of seeing so much death and knowing that she is sick.
To answer the third question I think she was at her breaking point because she was going to get sick and not knowing the body will respond much as now in today’s world at the beginning of the pandemic we all thought by getting Covid-19 we would pass away or have a huge inflection of how our bodies will respond.
To continue the stranger…I think the stranger is just like a dream like state of delirium that we talked about it in class. How the professor connected it with the book of Revelations of the End of the World. Like the vision that we get how the world would end.
1. The whole time I was reading this story, the title alone “Pale Horse ” made me think of the Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation. My mind went to Pestilence rather than Death, but, as the story progressed, I associated the rider overall with Death. I suppose Pestilence and Death could and do go hand in hand at times. I liked the start of the story since it set the tone for what we were in for. I think there is a lot of foreshadowing throughout and that the rider grows ever closer in her life. No one escapes Death. One may evade it for a while, but it will catch up to you eventually.
3. I think Porter chose this moment to be something of a breaking point for Miranda to show how when world tragedy is happening, anything can push a person over the edge. Under normal circumstances, a confrontation about a review would not trigger such an emotional response, but she is already overwhelmed by her surroundings so it pushes her over the edge. I also wonder if Porter isn’t trying to portray how oftentimes it is something personal that causes a breakdown rather than a greater world event. World events, like covid or war, will make us susceptible, but the thing which often pushes us over the edge is something personal, seemingly simply, like a human interaction. The review was also something she could control, unlike the other events in the world, and she feels guilty about adding to the suffering of another person when she understands how fragile she is and knows everyone else is during this time.