Death Is Inevitable, But Desirable

As a child, Miranda learns to admire her dead Aunt Amy above all others. This gives death a very glamorous appeal to little Miranda and she loves morbid stories of people dying tragically and romantically. In fact, death seems much more attractive than getting old. As a young adult surrounded by a world war and an influenza pandemic, Miranda is overwhelmed by feelings of impending doom, and she feels certain that Adam, her soldier boyfriend, will die very soon in battle. She dreams that Adam keeps getting shot through the heart with arrows, and she cries out to him, "No, no, like a child cheated in a game, It's my turn now, why must you always be the one to die?" (Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Section Three, pg. 242.)

When Miranda is delirious with influenza, she thinks, "The road to death is a long march...