The Color White Symbol Analysis

In “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” the color white represents illness. Whereas the pale horse of the apocalypse (and paleness in general) signifies death, the white horse represents pestilence, or sickness. Porter evokes the color white in scenes that deal directly with influenza: when Miranda is in the hospital, she is surrounded by whiteness: she is treated by medical staff in white uniforms, she is cloaked in white sheets and blankets, she hallucinates that Miss Tanner’s hands are “white tarantulas.” In this way, the symbolic weight Porter places on paleness and whiteness are very much connected: whiteness (illness) often leads to paleness (death). The connected symbolism of paleness and whiteness adds a layer of depth to the misery Miranda feels when she recovers at the end of the story. When Miranda finally wakes from her fevered hallucination of a glistening, hopeful eternity to find that she the war is over and she will recover from her illness, she is gravely disappointed. In her dream of eternity, Miranda was presented with an afterlife that promised hope, complete understanding, and an absence of pain. In contrast, the finite world of reality to which she awakens is riddled with suffering, alienation, and the pain that comes with death and grief. When Miranda wakes up in her hospital room, she finds that “the human faces around her seemed dull and tired” and “the once white walls of her room were now a soiled gray.” In other words, what was once white and clear has been muted to a grayish pallor. In this sense, white has given way to paleness and sickness has thus led to symbolic death: Miranda has recovered from her illness, but she must now submit herself to the pains and hardships of life, each of which are symbolic deaths in their own right.