The Rain Horse

Hello friend!

I have brought you a new blog post today which is about a dark story titled “The Rain Horse”. Happy reading!
                                     

[WARNING: This contains MAJOR spoilers]

The Rain Horse is a short story by famous children’s writer Ted Hughes. The story was written in 1947 [oh my god, that’s really old, right?].  It’s a very dark, sorta morbid story, but I really like it because it talks about overcoming one’s fears and struggles; the unnamed protagonist and narrator is depicted as a very paranoid twenty-five-year-old man who clearly carries a whole lot of pain and guilt in his heart. However, the reader is never told what the man’s burden is; that’s intentionally left open to interpretation by us, the honoured recipients of this chilling and fascinating story. The title refers to a hostile black horse who constantly attacks the man, but eventually leaves him alone [after being pelted with stones. Ha, take that, horse! Role reversal!] I don’t think that horse is real; more like it’s a figment of his imagination. As I said before, the man is paranoid, and his [apparently] unpleasant association with the valley where he saw the horse caused him to hallucinate; when he is bold enough to face the horse, the animal suddenly lowers its head and disappears. This is symbolic of the man subjugating his fears. The cat-and-mouse game that this story depicts is really thrilling—when you read it, you’ll be holding your breath and thinking “what next? What next?” Trust me on this—I know. If you’ve read it already, I wonder if you agree with me! I will now give you a brief summary of The Rain Horse.

The setting, according to the demands of the story, is super gloomy. The story begins on a miserable, cloudy day; it’s raining excessively.  A young man is trudging through all the mud and rain, trying to find some place where he can get warm and dry; when he gets to a familiar place, he looks down into the valley and notices, to his unpleasant surprise, that this the valley which he left twelve years ago [he had no intention of returning. Ever.] He remembers this place extremely well; when he left, it was a flourishing little valley, but now he can only see terribly barren fields, filled with muddy water. This mirrors his state of mind.

He had thought that he’d experience a flurry of inexplicable emotions were he to return; surprisingly, he feels nothing. He keeps waiting for some emotion to wash over him, but there is no sensation—nothing except anger. [From what I can gather, he was the one at fault and is now trying to live his guilt down, but he’s mad at the inhabitants of the valley! That’s just my deduction, though.] His anger continues to rise to boiling point; he’s frustrated because the rain is ruining his new suit and shoes, and he’s furious because he just wants to run away and never think of this place again. While these thoughts are running through his head, he notices something from the corner of his eye: “over to his right a thin, black horse was running across the ploughland towards the hill, its head down, neck stretched out. It seemed to be running on its toes like a cat, like a dog up to no good.” The horse is demonstrating unusually hostile behaviour, right? Horses don’t normally lower their heads until one provokes them; the poor [maybe it so poor] man did nothing to anger the horse—he didn’t even notice it before! Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, the man turns away from the horse and retreats into the woods, seeking some kind of shelter from the rain [ he is also trying to protect himself from the freakish horse. His attempts are in vain.] The horse follows him into the woods; when the man opens his mouth to scream in terror, it disappears [talk about uncanny…]. Understandably shaken, the man somehow manages to pull himself together and makes his way to the farmhouse located over the hill when he sees the horse again; this time, it’s been waiting for him. Its sharp white teeth are bared in what seems to be a savage grin; however, the man is not so scared anymore, and is determined to fight the horse should the brute dare to attack him. He picks up several stones and keeps walking.

The horse tosses its proud, beautiful black head and stamps its mighty hooves; it seems to have every intention of attacking him. The man assumes that something must be wrong with the animal, as normal horses’ behaviour is very friendly and gentle; perhaps the horse is sick, or skittish because of the never-ending downpour. Nevertheless, it is hellbent on stalking him [yeah, stalking.]  Seems like it eventually got impatient, because it ends up attacking its quarry; the man is determined to win this battle, so he pelts it with stones until the horse relents and stops its onslaught. He commands it to stay where it is if it doesn’t want to get hurt; the horse complies, and the man hurries on to the farm where he sits in quiet contemplation, his head in his hands, trying to recover from the trauma of what he just experienced. The swift, but chilling, encounter with the horse leaves our dear protagonist and narrator shaken; he is not in a hurry to come back here. The story ends on this note.

So, I believe that the horse was just a manifestation of the man’s [very strong] negative emotions-- after all, horses are not normally hostile creatures; they’re not supernatural beings to be able to appear and disappear at their will and wish; they’re not savage [and, as far as I know, they don’t grin.] What do you think? I’ve given you my opinion; please do give me yours! That’s all for now. See you next time!

I hope you liked my article!

Thank you!