Horses with Horns: Symbology

"Laura (smiling): 'I'll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less- freakish! (They both laugh) Now he will feel more at home with the other horses, the ones that don't have horns.' " pg 1283

Laura is definitely a peculiar woman. She has fits of "indigestion" whenever she gets out of her comfort zone. She refuses to go to the business school that her mother paid tuition for; instead she walks around town all day visiting museums all day. Simple things such as little glass figures fascinate her, however. She's quite, shy, and uncomfortable in foreign situations. So it's odd when Jim O'Connor reappears from her past and erases all her fears and insecurities with a candlelit conversation and a dance in the living room. He's very charming, and dives right into very personal conversations right away, something I expected to scare Laura off. She wouldn't even answer the door an hour ago! It might be because he was someone she knew before, but still, Laura looses her fear as quickly as the small glass unicorn broke her horn off.

The unicorn is a symbol for Laura. Jim swept in and broke off her "freakish" horn and made her into a "normal" girl. I didn't think she needed her horn broken off. There was nothing wrong with her to begin with. Sure, it's nice for her to feel normal and be more confident in who she is. But I don't think her probably fleeting confidence should have come at the expense of her loosing what makes her special. So it's probably for the best that Jim didn't stick around. He was around long enough to make her feel special and capable, but didn't stay long enough to change her completely. Maybe she could glue her horn back on...