Horses of the Night
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"When The Bludgeoning Words are Dealt, Escape to Euphoria"
Margaret Laurence's short story, "Horses of the Night" presents the idea that some individuals find it difficult to deal with the harsh, shrewd, and extremely cruel realities of life. One way of dealing with the unbearable realities is to withdrawal themselves mentally from the situation.
Individuals may block out actual horrible words as a way of dealing with uncomfortable situations. Throughout the story, Chris shows his personality to be passive, and almost carefree. He displays this carefree attitude in many examples. For instance, the first clue was when Chris overhears the family speaking poorly of him. "But as for Chris he gave no sign of feeling anything. He began to talk to me, quite easily, just as though he had not heard a word my grandfather was saying." Right there, normally, Chris should have shown hurt feelings, or at least some kind of emotion, but instead he seemed to be in a dreamland. "He would not argue or defend himself, but he did not apologize either" when Grandfather Connor had something harsh to say...