Dying to Escape

It was once said by Picasso that “Everything you can imagine is real.” Nevertheless, in life at times it takes a certain strength, a will, to plant the seed of imagination, to make it grow into something real. In the end without that will this precious seed may not bare any fruit and all that is left is a will to escape. Such stories as “Horses of the Night” by the great Canadian writer, Margret Laurence, develop the idea that one's life and things it bares greatly depend upon an individual's desire to live their own life or to escape from it. Within this literary work the writer draws upon setting to further develop the idea of escape. Likewise, the symbols used by the writer help the reader reach this understanding of escape and it's consequences.

Symbols throughout “Horses of the Night” play a key role. Such symbols include the symbol of the horses, eyes and the color gray. First of all the horses help show the false reality in which Chris lives. These horses, seen throughout the short story help signify Chris as a character. In the beginning Chris makes out the horses, two beautiful creatures “Dutchess and Firefly” which he himself raised and hopes to make into something grand, “...I bet I could make racers out of them”. In some ways it could thus be concluded that these horses are not only represent Chris but also the life in which he lives. He makes these horses to be really more then they are not because he is actively lying but because that is his own escape away from the real horses “Floss and Tropper” which are mismatched and are plough, work, horses, nothing more. Which in many ways describes the nature of Chris's life at shallow creek which is a life filled with hard work and struggle. As well the horses are described in the scene in which they themselves realize their doom. This is in much the same way Chris realizes much too late how trapped he truly was. Secondly, the symbol of the eyes shows the depth the of this trap. At first it was highlighted how gray Chris's eyes truly are. This of course leads to the fact that Chris in many ways is absent from this space, there but his soul remaining far from that place, “elsewhere”. Later on the book these symbols, eyes, are used to describe the terror of the horses when they realize their own doom. They, much like Chris at war see the grim reality of life, and Chris who never before has been present to this reality, loses their minds. Last of all, the color gray is used throughout the story to show the complex nature of Chris's escape and how lost he surely is. Gray as mentioned before in the instance of the eyed shows Chris not only as absent but also as unfeeling. For gray is such a color which is always to be trapped between the light and the dark, his reality and that of the depression. Thus one may see that such symbols show Chris is truly trapped in this imaginary world, unable to make anything out of it, which he carries on in his physical world.

This setting plays a great role on the impact on Chris and his will to escape. The first setting Chris is confronted by is that of the Brick house which further encourages Chris's will to escape. The grandfather, grandfather Conner, is shown to be cold and something which Chris is forced, even his first encounter, to escape from. Which of course is only the beginning of Chris's stay in the “Brick House” from which he is, like at home, is forced to escape from. Nonetheless, this only cumulates in the crushing of his dream of going on to be an engineer by grandfather Conner. Yet, Chris tries fighting this lose through multiple failed jobs and dreams further crushing him, eventually forcing him to again return, as a last resort, to Shallow Creek. For this was the original place, his home, is where Chris was in his youth forced to escape from his reality due to the fact that he could not live in such a place, with those hardships of the depression he has faced at that place since the beginning of his life. The last setting is that of Chris's own world where he is not trapped in the chains of the depression and can be free to imagine. This is the reality that Chris runs to, where his soul truly lives, yet nothing can come from this. Yet, he attempts to make something out of it with his relationship with Vanessa, who is captivated by this same illusion. Ultimately though Vanessa realizes that this illusion, like the siren's song, draws such a vial of beauty before the mind that the unfortunate soul in seeing it fails to behold the black sea of life before their feet. Yet it remains that here behind this vial Chris is safe, he has his horses, yet it is an illusion. One Chris realizes too late and thus is forced to make the dream perpetual, an everlasting final step. Thus it can be seen that Chris is forced to escape into this reality and has to live his life in a shelled existence according to this decision.

In conclusion, the story “Horses of the Night” penned by renowned writer Margret Laurence, concludes that the consequences of ones life greatly depend upon the desires of an individual to escape from life or to live it. Thus it can be seen Chris unlike Vanessa who made the choice to put away the saddle to this escape both “...gently and ruthlessly”, became trapped in this non-existent world, having no claim to the real world. Universally it can been seen that individuals who face life, even in the toughest times can make something great out of themselves, unlike those who become imprisoned in their own minds. A will to live in this world is a much greater will to fulfill then that of willing yourself into a false existence, yet it's fruits are not imaginary.