KidLit Forum

A view of British life showed by different changes in setting
The title of the book is a generic one, although the horse is named differently every time he gets a new master (Part 1 – Black Beauty, Part 2 – Black Auster, Part 3 – Jack, Part 4 – Blackie, Black Beauty, Old Crony). In the beginning we can also sense a little irony towards the names that are given to horses: "(...) master and misstress had chosen a good, sensible English name for me, that meant something; not like Marengo, or Pegasus, or Abdallah."
There are differences in tone and attitude among the parts of the book. Often the tone is a bitter one, irony being used to describe the attitude that is opposite to the stated facts.
That’s the case with Part 3 where we get some ideas about :
- politics / elections
“Why, father, I thought blue was for Liberty”
“My boy, Liberty does not come from colors, they only show party, and all the liberty you can get out of them is, liberty to get drunk at other people’s expense, liberty to ride to the poll in a dirty old cab, liberty to abuse any one that does not wear your color, and to shout yourself hoarse at what you only half understand – that’s your liberty!” (…) ‘An election is a very serious thing; at least it ought to be, and every man ought to vote according to his conscience, and let his neighbour do the same. ‘
- drinking habits that ruin lives and families; the consequences of driving while under the influence; a lesson about how to get rid off this habit. The passage seems to be a universal truth, as it fits very well the times we are living:
“ I only wish all the drunkards could be put in a lunatic asylum instead of being allowed to run foul of sober people. If they broke their own bone, and smash their own carts,and lame their own horses, that would be their own affair, and we might let them alone, but it seems to me that the innocent always suffer; and then they talk about compensation! You can’t make compensation; there’s all the trouble, and vexation, and loss of time (…)’

- how to get rid off the habit of drinking: ‘(…) and when the craving came on I used to get a cup of coffee, or some peppermint, or read a bit in my book, and that was a help for me; sometimes I had to say over and over to myself, Give up the drink or lose you soul’
- the role of the woman in society
- days of work in a week
- religious belief: ‘(…) people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it doesn not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast it is all a sham (…)’
- social and moral issues: “ Do you know why this world is as bad as it is? (…) It is because people think only about their own business, and won’t trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrongdoer to light.(… ) My doctrine is this, if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.’

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Monika Bandi