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Miranda
Adam is Miranda’s love interest. He is a 24-year-old soldier during World War I. Miranda describes Adam as “all olive and tan and tawny, hay colored and sand colored from hair to boots.” He is tall and muscular. He cares about his appearance—he admits to Miranda that he gets his soldier’s uniform made by “the best tailor he could find.” Miranda initially paints Adam as the tall, dark, and handsome idealized man, though he’s far from perfect. He adores Miranda, but they don’t quite connect with each other all the time. Adam makes dark jokes about the fate that will likely await him if he is called to fight in the war, revealing that he is uncomfortable at the prospect and thus making light of it in order to avoid confronting his mortality head on. While Miranda is staunchly critical of the feigned acts of patriotism she sees in Denver, Adam is more sympathetic towards the things people need to do to feel less afraid and helpless in the face of the horrific war. Adam cares for Miranda when she first becomes sick. He brings her coffee and ice cream and water, and they sing and pray together. He kisses her on the mouth despite the risk of infection. When Miranda is moved to the hospital he is no longer allowed to visit her. After Miranda slips into unconsciousness, Adam is summoned to fight. At a military camp, he falls ill with influenza and dies. Adam’s death affects Miranda profoundly, and she grieves for him when she learns of his fate.
Adam Barclay Quotes in Pale Horse, Pale Rider
The Pale Horse, Pale Rider quotes below are all either spoken by Adam Barclay or refer to Adam Barclay. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Quotes
“I don’t want to love,” she would think in spite of herself, “not Adam, there is no time and we are not ready for it and yet this is all we have—”
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“Adam,” she said, “the worst of war is the fear and suspicion and the awful expression in all the eyes you meet…as if they had pulled down the shutters over their minds and their hearts and were peering out at you, ready to leap if you make one gesture or say one word they do not understand instantly.”
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She wanted to say, “Adam, come out of your dream and listen to me. I have pains in my chest and my head and my heart and they’re real. I am in pain all over, and you are in such danger as I can’t bear it think about it, and why can we not save each other?”
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Miranda […] noticed a dark young pair sitting at a corner table, […] their heads together, their eyes staring at the same thing, whatever it was, that hovered in the space before them. Her right hand lay on the table, his hand over it, and her face was a blur with weeping. Now and then he raised her hand and kissed it […] They said not a word, and the small pantomime repeated itself, like a melancholy short film running monotonously over and over again. Miranda envied them. […] At least [the girl] can weep if that helps, and he does not even have to ask, What is the matter? Tell me.
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“Death always leaves one singer to mourn.”
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No more war, no more plague, only the dazed silence that follows the ceasing of the heavy guns; noiseless houses with the shades drawn, empty streets, the dead cold light of tomorrow. Now there would be time for everything.
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Adam Barclay Quotes in Pale Horse, Pale Rider
The Pale Horse, Pale Rider quotes below are all either spoken by Adam Barclay or refer to Adam Barclay. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Quotes
“I don’t want to love,” she would think in spite of herself, “not Adam, there is no time and we are not ready for it and yet this is all we have—”
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Adam,” she said, “the worst of war is the fear and suspicion and the awful expression in all the eyes you meet…as if they had pulled down the shutters over their minds and their hearts and were peering out at you, ready to leap if you make one gesture or say one word they do not understand instantly.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
She wanted to say, “Adam, come out of your dream and listen to me. I have pains in my chest and my head and my heart and they’re real. I am in pain all over, and you are in such danger as I can’t bear it think about it, and why can we not save each other?”
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Miranda […] noticed a dark young pair sitting at a corner table, […] their heads together, their eyes staring at the same thing, whatever it was, that hovered in the space before them. Her right hand lay on the table, his hand over it, and her face was a blur with weeping. Now and then he raised her hand and kissed it […] They said not a word, and the small pantomime repeated itself, like a melancholy short film running monotonously over and over again. Miranda envied them. […] At least [the girl] can weep if that helps, and he does not even have to ask, What is the matter? Tell me.
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“Death always leaves one singer to mourn.”
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No more war, no more plague, only the dazed silence that follows the ceasing of the heavy guns; noiseless houses with the shades drawn, empty streets, the dead cold light of tomorrow. Now there would be time for everything.
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