Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1939

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Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1 Summary

Miranda wakes up in an unfamiliar bed and feels an urge to ride a horse. She remembers a “lank greenish stranger” (72) who has been lurking around the property. She selects a horse named Graylie and rides out across the property. The stranger rides beside her, and Miranda begins to believe that she recognizes him. She stops and tells the stranger to ride on without her. He goes, and Miranda decides that she must wake up. She rouses herself from her dream.

Miranda wakes and, for a moment, blissfully forgets about World War I. She thinks about her work at the newspaper office and the people who repeatedly visit her desk, much to her annoyance. As she prepares for work, she thinks about her weekly budget and, though she has little money, is sure that she can stretch her small wage far enough. She remembers the two men with “a stale air of borrowed importance” (73) who visited her the day before to pressure her into buying a Liberty Bond that she could not afford. The men claim that this is not a valid excuse with “the Huns overrunning the martyred Belgium” (74). Not wanting to say what she really thinks, Miranda reluctantly agreed to purchase a bond the following week.

Miranda bathes and nurses a “burning slow headache” (75). As she dresses, she decides that the war is the cause of her headache. She thinks about her friend and colleague Towney, the author of the newspaper’s gossip column. In their previous jobs as reporters, Miranda and Towney were punished for agreeing to sanitize a story about a scandalous elopement after they took pity on the young girl involved. When a rival newspaper published the lurid details, Miranda and Towney were “degraded publicly to routine female jobs” (75). Miranda now covers the theater for the newspaper. Like Miranda, Towney struggles to afford a Liberty Bond, and the pressure from the men makes her weep with frustration. Towney worries that she and Miranda might be fired if they refuse to purchase the bonds. Miranda tells her not to worry. She thinks about meeting enlisted men at dances and then visiting a hospital ward to support the injured soldiers, though the resentful silence of some soldiers perturbs her.

Miranda reflects on a young man she recently met named Adam. He is “simply always present” (77) in her thoughts. She knows that he’ll be waiting for her in the hallway of the building where they both live. Adam greets Miranda as she exits her house “as if quite startled to see her” (78). He walks with her to the newspaper office. They pass funerals and share small talk, Miranda noticing how much he looks “like a fine healthy apple this morning” (79). They’ve known each other for 10 days, and Adam is pleased to announce that his leave has been extended. He says that a “funny new disease” (80) is spreading through the American troops. Miranda mentions that she feels “too rotten” to go out, and they agree to meet the following day; Adam warns Miranda not to get sick as his “leave is nearly up and it will be the last” (81). He wants to spend what little time he has left with her. She bids him farewell and enters the newspaper office.

Part 1 Analysis

Pale Horse, Pale Rider uses Miranda’s perspective to tell the story. Miranda’s personality influences the structure and tone of the narration. A pessimistic, nihilistic person, she struggles to find joy in her life. The manner in which she’s haunted by her unhappy past affects the narrative’s structure: As Miranda goes about her day-to-day life, she obsesses over details and memories from recent days as she tries to extract meaning from them. She prepares for work while fretting about the Liberty Bonds salesmen, and in the context of the story, these past interactions intrude on the present. These memories aren’t quite flashbacks; instead, they’re recent, pressing concerns that influence Miranda’s frenetic, anxious state of mind. While she spends her present obsessively relitigating her recent past, she notably never thinks about the future. The story’s structure emphasizes the importance of the past in Miranda’s life, while the tone emphasizes her feelings about the future. Miranda doesn’t think about what lays ahead. She stops herself from worrying about the future by forcefully distracting herself from anxiety, telling herself to stop fretting about bills, but not telling herself to stop fretting about the past. Miranda has little hope for the future. She lives forcefully in the now, lacking any optimism that her condition will improve in the future.

Miranda’s pessimism is largely caused by the war. However, the reality of the war is represented in the everyday lives of the characters. War, to the characters in Denver, doesn’t mean guns and trenches. World War I affects these characters in a dramatically different way. To Miranda, the war means being forced to appear patriotic at all times. The war affects the demographics of the society, removing most young men or—as with Adam—placing a limit on the amount of time that young men have left before they are sent to Europe to fight in the war. The portrayal of the war in Pale Horse, Pale Rider is a portrayal of life on the home front. The war has a destabilizing effect on the lives on the characters—but not in the manner traditionally associated with World War I. Thousands of miles away from the theater of the war, the characters’ lives are more impacted by the availability of sugar than by shells or rifles. Notably absent from the concern of the characters is the enemy. The enemy is rarely mentioned, except in offhand jokes or speculation. Instead, the characters worry about their material conditions—about having enough money to pay the rent, about having enough food in their cupboards, and about the romantic relationships they have with people who might be sent away soon. Though World War I is a global conflict, the characters in the story obsess over demonstrably domestic concerns.

The portrayal of World War I-era society subtly outlines the role of women. At the time, society was in flux. The sudden absence of so many young men caused many gaps in the workforce, and women such as Miranda find themselves with new opportunities in traditionally male-dominated industries—yet also discovering that many historical prejudices against women in the workplace remain. Miranda and Towney, for example, both work as news reporters for the local newspaper. They’re able to work in these roles because the male reporters have been sent to war. This opportunity doesn’t last for long. They take pity on a young girl who doesn’t want the story of her elopement to cause a scandal. Miranda and Towney are punished for their empathy toward the girl. They’re dismissed from their roles as news reporters and assigned to roles more traditionally associated with women. The male-dominated newsroom at that time associated women with certain gendered areas of news coverage, such as theater reviews and gossip columns. The opportunities for women increased during wartime, but the patriarchal attitudes of many managers meant that women like Miranda were expected to do exactly as they were told. Society, at the time depicted in the story, was still negotiating the terms by which women could enter male-dominated workplaces.