What’s more, pushing aside the possibility of Adam’s death doesn’t actually rid Miranda of her suffering on the contrary, her avoidant behavior invites a new problem. Miranda and Adam joke about a long-term concern (lung disease) in order to distract themselves from the horror of the short-term concern (the real possibility of Adam’s imminent death) lurks ominously before them. Despite the darkness of their humor, though, an explicit nod to death is notably absent in the exchange. Adam knows it’s highly likely that will die in combat, so the prospect of lung disease is hardly worrisome. “Does it matter so much if you’re going to war, anyway?” he asks Miranda.

Although Adam smokes “continually,” he never fails to “explain to exactly what smoking to the lungs.” Adam flaunts his contradictory behavior-smoking while being fully aware of its health risks-because he has bigger concerns to worry about. One such example is the couple’s jokes about the dangers of smoking. In place of explicit acknowledgement, they allude to death with dark humor. The solution she and Adam settle on is to not acknowledge death as a possibility. The uncertainty of Adam’s future pains Miranda to think that the man she’s falling in love with could be dead in a week, a month, or a year causes her great suffering. Miranda and Adam refuse to acknowledge the real possibility of death Adam faces as a soldier. Through Miranda’s staunch avoidance of death, Porter suggests that denying death is unproductive and even harmful, as it blocks the path towards a healthy acceptance of mortality. In “ Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” Porter explores the pervasive fear of death that plagues humankind. Yet she refuses to acknowledge death upfront, choosing instead to allude to death indirectly: consciously through humor, and unconsciously in her dreams. It confronts her in her dreams, in the funerals that fill the streets each day, in the ongoing war, and in the raging influenza pandemic that antagonizes her city and the rest of the world.

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