The simile of the pictures
Maria and her sister Maria listen to how their father describes the beauty of his late sister Amy. He says that his sister was the most beautiful being ever lived. He adds that she was slim and never fat as the pictures try to portray. The girls conclude that slimness is the epitome of beauty. They relate that to their grandmother who is the talk in the town that she has always maintained beauty. They compare her slimness to the Matchstick. The author writes:
“Their grandmother was thin as a match; the pictures of their mother, long since dead, proved her to have been a candle-wick, almost.
The Simile of Grandchildren
To build the theme of beauty in the “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” Katherine Anne Porter uses the simile of the grandchildren to aid the reader understand that Harry's mother was to the foundation of beauty in her family. Every woman and girl in the family tree is beautiful and they are not ashamed of displaying how God has blessed them with prettiness. When other grandmother's granddaughters come visiting for school holidays to join Maria and Miranda, they brag that they have eighteen-inch waists a sign of gorgeousness. Miranda says that they are like herself in terms of beauty. Katherine writes:
“Dashing young ladies, who turned to be, to Miranda’s astonishment, merely more of grandmother’s grandchildren, like herself, came visiting from the school for the holidays, boasting of their eighteen-inch waists.”
The Simile of the of Reeds and Sylphs
The narrator describes how Harry defends his assertion that the generation led by his mother has always had slim and beautiful women. To confirm his argument, he takes the reader back to his youthful age. He says that during that time, all the girls he knew from his mother’s lineage were as slim and gracious as sylphs were. He is trying to distance himself from the fatty shapes of Eliza and Kezia who are from the same lineage. Perhaps, the reader can see that it is Keziah and Eliza’s faults to have huge bodies, which differentiate them from the rest of the family.
"But something seemed to happen to their father's memory when he thought of the girls he had known in the family of his youth and declared steadfastly they had all been, in every generation without exception, as slim and gracious as sylphs."
A Bright Blank Heavenly Blue Sky (Metaphor)
The narrator metaphorically uses a bright blank heavenly blue to refer to the other side of the story. Harry is biased from the way he shares his stories. Whenever he talks about his family, he makes sure he talks only about good things. He accepts that the family feeling is stronger than his real ideals. Therefore, he finds it hard to tell anything negative about his family. For instance, he is possessed by the topic of family beauty. He says that all his sisters are slim but the narrator disapproves that when she introduces Keziah and Eliza who are fat. The little too girls are also skeptical about their father's assertion concerning family beauty. The closer look at the portraits and pictures, and then compare with what they are told but the reality is slightly different.
The Simile of Perish Ability
As the girls (Maria and Miranda) are trying to look at the pictures on the portraits, they are thinking what they could be in reality. Most of these pictures are of the late sons and daughters of their grandmother. Their pictures show that they are beautiful souls who must have lived. However, when the girls try to relate that with what they wore when alive, the reality contradicts their expectations. Nevertheless, they know that they are now all dead and perishing just like any other flesh. The pictures are just a memory of their one’s existence. The narrator says:
“The visible remains were nothing; they were dust, perishable as the flesh; the features stamped on paper and metal were nothing, but their living memory enchanted the little girls.”
