Big Blonde

Throughout the story, Hazel is particularly sensitive to animals, particularly horses, and the image of horses is a repeated motif. Whenever Hazel sees them on the street, her mood dips: “The old horses she saw on Sixth Avenue—struggling and slipping along the car-tracks, or standing at the curb, their heads dropped level with their worn knees” (20). She seems to identify with how these magnificent beasts are constantly weighed down by heavy burdens.

At one point, already in a low mood, Hazel leaves her flat to meet her latest lover, Art. On the way, she witnesses a horse being mercilessly lashed by its driver. The spectacle horrifies her and catapults her into an even lower mood. She tries to explain her sadness to Art, who merely chastises her. Feeling both low and misunderstood, she proceeds to drink “industriously” to chase away the blues, but her melancholy won’t lift. Art simply advises her to go home and sleep herself out of her gloom.

The same night, she swallows two vials of veronal in an attempt to die by suicide. When the attempt fails and she wakes up and realizes that she’s still very much alive, she envisions a future of misery, including “a long parade of weary horses and shivering beggars and all beaten, driven, stumbling things” (32).