One of the prominent features of Modern English literature is the use of symbolism. Modern writers in their short stories use symbols to build the theme or atmosphere of the story. Symbolism implies a deeper sense, underneath a plain vivid external account. It serves to bear out an undertone of the literary materials treated and thereby add to profundity of the sense or actual meaning.


            H. E. Bates in his short story, "The Ox" uses plain and straightforward manner to express his theme which is all about the hard, painful and selfless life of a poor woman, Mrs. Thurlow. In this story, Mrs. Thurlow is the ox. Actually, the ox symbolises the beast of burden who is born to toil hard and get cruel treatment which he must bear without any protest or tear. Similarly, Mrs. Thurlow, with a strong and laborious constitution, and apparently unfeeling and insensitive mind, is destined to be tormented and tortured endlessly.


               "The Ox" is a tragic story about Mrs. Thurlow's deep tragedy. She had to work hard from early morning to the late night. "At half past seven every morning Mrs. Thurlow pushed......pushed it back." But her bicycle was "a vehicle of necessity", not an element of luxury to her as "her relationship to it was that of a beast to a cart." Here, the symbolic use of "cart" is very much appropriate.


             Again, physically, Mrs. Thurlow had a similarity to the beast of burden, the ox. She had a bulky rather robust body, with her flat heavy feet that "pounded painfully along under her mud-stained skirts."


             Mrs. Thurlow had two specific human features --- (1) she used to read old newspapers in every Sunday afternoon and (2)she saved money for the future of her two sons as "she saw them realising......even as butlers." "But emotionally", when she read newspapers, "her face showed no impression. It remained ox-like in its impassivity."


             The very site of Mrs. Thurlow's house exposed to the rough wind and isolated from the surrounding landscape has a symbolic reference to her hard life, exposed to roughness and pain, as also to her utter isolationin her drudgery and struggle, with her carefree, callous husband, Mr. Thurlow and cold, unsympathetic sons.


            Again Mrs. Thurlow's "scrubbing and washing money" symbolised the future of her two sons: "It symbolised the future, another life, two lives. It was the future itself." The loss of that saving was the desolation of her future she tried to rebuild in vain even after her husband's death.


             Finally the repeated punctures in tyres of the cycle are symbolic of the cruel beatings it's owner has received in life and the last leaking of air from irreparable tyre definitely suggests the ebbing away of all her ox-like energy: ".....she heard a faint hissing from the back tyre....she pushed forward. A little later it seemed to her that the hissing got worse.....It was softer now, almost flat."


             Here the symbolism reaches an impressive point of complete identification of the human with the inanimate. The symbolic turns of the story are, however, simple and there is little of the psychological complexity of Katherine Mansfield or James Joyce in Bates. This human theme of silent service and sufferings, and cold, cruel selfishness are well-exposed by the symbolic tone of the story.

The expression is taken from famous story writer H.E. Bates' significant short story The Ox.

       Here 'it' refers to the hard-earned and hard-saved money of Mrs. Thurlow. This line serves to indicate the immense importance of her lost money to Mrs. Thurlow. The story-teller emphasizes here how she did look upon the loss of her money.

Mrs. Thurlow's saving had much significant to her. That did not mean simply a store of sovereigns, silver and coin to her. It actually stood for something much more significant in her life. She saved this money for the future of her two sons. Infact, it was the symbol of her optimism about their future success in life as some assistance in shops, clerks and even butlers. Their entire future actually was based on that very saving.

This line signifies the value of her saving to Mrs. Thurlow. The loss was not merely the loss of some money to her. It was a dreadful blow to her future - the future that she had built about her two sons.

The Ox by H.E Bates is a short story not about the beast of burden, the ox but about the tragedy of Mrs. Thurlow. Here 'it' refers to Mrs. Thurlow's soul companion bicycle. The significance of the bicycle in Mrs. Thurlow's life and draudgery is here indicated.

          Mrs. Thurlow, the main character of the story, worked hard to save her family of her husband and two sons. In her life of unbroken drudgery, her unfailing companion was her bicycle. The bicycle was old, rusty, hardly cleaned or repaired, but very much essential to her life. The bixycle was always loaded, but could never be ridden. She used to carry grey bundle of clothes, oilcans, sacks, cabbages, bundles of old newspapers, boughs of wind blown wood and bags of chicken food in her 'rusty' bicycle. We use the bicycle for our comfort, for our luxury, but Mrs. Thurlow used it to serve her necessity, the bicycle was no element of luxury to her.

           This line signifies much truth of Mrs. Thurlow's life of drudgery. The expression 'vehicle of necessity' is deeply meaningful in the assessment of the nature of Mrs. Thurlow's life of drudgery. Bates emphasizes here Mrs. Thurlow's approach to her bicycle.