Short Story Collection: Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Introduction
"Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is a collection of 3 short novels composed by Katherine Anne Porter and released in 1939. The three novels, "Old Mortality", "Noon Wine", and "Pale Horse, Pale Rider", are connected by themes of loss, the passage of time, and the struggle to come to terms with a quickly changing world. The title of the collection is originated from the final book, which draws its name from a biblical passage in the Book of Revelation, representing death and destruction.

Old Mortality
"Old Mortality" informs the story of 2 young girls, Miranda and Maria, who are raised by their dad, a former Confederate soldier, and their family in the South. The girls grow up finding out about and idolizing their Aunt Amy, a stunning and defiant lady who defied social expectations for ladies and left the household to pursue an acting career.

The story follows Miranda as she grows older and starts to question the legends surrounding her aunt. She fights with her own sense of identity as she discovers the truth about her household's past, ultimately realizing that her household's stories about their ancestors are misshaped by nostalgia and fantasy.

The unique checks out themes of memory, identity, and the results of social rigidity on individual freedom. It challenges the idealized stories that households and neighborhoods develop about their past and raises questions about whether it is possible to ever fully understand or understand another person's life experience.

Twelve noon Wine
In "Noon Wine", Porter changes from the South to a small Texas farm, where Mr. Thompson and his household live a basic yet content life. Thompson's farm begins to fail as he is not able to maintain his dairy and hay organization. Desperate for help, he works with a peaceful and enigmatic Swedish guy named Olaf Helton as a farmhand.

At first, Helton shows to be a valuable property to the farm, improving the quality of the items and assisting the household restore their tranquil life. However, the truth about Helton's past ultimately emerges - he is a fugitive wanted for the murder of his sibling in Sweden. When a stranger named Homer T. Hatch pertains to the farm looking for Helton's arrest, he is eliminated in a scuffle with Mr. Thompson.

The murder brings mess up to the Thompson family, causing them to lose their farm and destroying their credibility. The story concludes with Mr. Thompson, tortured by the effects of his actions, committing suicide. "Noon Wine" checks out styles of guilt, innocence, and the method which a single occasion can alter the course of one's life entirely.

Pale Horse, Pale Rider
In the last and titular story "Pale Horse, Pale Rider", Porter returns to the perspective of Miranda, now an adult lady working as a newspaper journalist throughout World War I. Set throughout the height of the 1918 flu pandemic, the story follows Miranda as she falls for a handsome volunteer named Adam Barclay, a soldier awaiting a call to battle in Europe.

During this time, Miranda ends up being gravely ill with influenza. As she faces her own impending death, she dreams of a pale horse and its rider - harbingers of death from the Book of Revelation. The story shifts between Miranda's heightened, hallucinatory dreams and her relationship with Barclay.

In the end, Miranda recovers from the influenza, only to find out that her fan has died in the war overseas. The novel contrasts the violence and chaos of war with the individual catastrophes of the international pandemic and raises concerns about the meaning of life, love, and redemption in the face of suffering and death.

Conclusion
Throughout the three novels in the collection "Pale Horse, Pale Rider", Katherine Anne Porter elegantly examines the intricacies of human nature, the unreliability of memory, and the profound impact of individual loss and social change on individual lives. Each of the stories provides a gripping story and extensive insights into the human condition, making this collection a timeless and engaging piece of literature.