Posted by Shane Cook on June 06, 1999 at 02:08:27:
In the story "Handleing Charges" the reader learns that the horse symbolizes Jeff in the story because of his disease, and the problems that he faces with his mother's denial. The color of the horse is black, and in most poems and short stories this color symbolizes death which could be forecsting Jeff's future. The significance of Tova's bearing Jeff towards the black horse is that it does symbolize the death of Jeff and it can slao symbolize the fact that Jeff will no longer have to suffer.