Horse Rain

The setting in both texts is crucial. Both stories use wilderness to create a tone of mystery
Hughes also suggests that the Rainhorse is supernatural in his writing. He describes the horse as possibly ‘Clairvoyant’ which is certainly supernatural. Also when thinking to himself about an ordinary horse the man says ‘this horse was nothing like that’ which suggests that the Rainhorse is out of the ordinary, therefore out of this world and supernatural. When the horse is around the rain seems to pour much harder and heavier, it is almost as if the horse has the power to control the element of rain. It is also describes as ‘nightmarish’ which suggests that it is supernatural as we can only dream about it. I feel that when he came back he was not greeted by the past he desired. I feel that the Rainhorse is a metaphor for all the bad and pain he suffered in his past that he wanted to forget, and each fight the man has with the horse is him fighting in his own mind to forget his past. When the man finally beats the horse in battle he sits down and says that a ‘chunk of his brain was missing’ and I believe that this chunk is the past which he has chosen to forget by destroying the horse.

The man in ‘The Rainhorse’ is always looking for a rational explanation to the seemingly supernatural events that occur. For example after the horse attack he says ‘the horse was evidently mad’. He is trying to hide what he doesn’t want to believe
Hughes and Conan Doyle give vivid, almost supernatural descriptions of their beastsTed Hughes is a poet and when he describes the horse we can see this-‘The horse was almost on top of him…flattened lips…long yellow teeth…red veined eyeball…tree’. He uses imagery and similes and metaphorsHughes uses poetic language and extremely detailed imagery but does not spell out exactly what it means. For example we are not told about the man’s past and the story can be interpreted in many different ways. It is up to the reader to think and decide how
I feel that both texts are successful in their aims. ‘The Rainhorse’ takes the reader through a journey of confusion and wonder and leaves it up to the reader to make his own way out, using a number of possible routes. the reader can manipulate the ‘Rainhorse’ in numerous ways to suit their own mind.