KidLit Forum

What I found very interesting in this book is the fact that ignorance is as bad as cruelty or wickedness. This sentiment is introduced by John in an incident of life and death importance. As Joe’s ignorance (forgets to put a blanket over the horse) almost costs Beauty his life, the narrator emphasizes the importance of fighting against ignorance and understanding it as being a destructive force. More over the narrator adds more examples of such kind. The hunting accident, in which Beauty’s brother dies, is probably the first such incident. Maybe the rider did not intend any harm, but he was senseless in attempting to make such a difficult leap, and this resulted in his own death. The concept of ignorance is also illustrated by Beauty’s mother who said "there are a great many kinds of men; there are good thoughtful men like our master, that any horse may be proud to serve; and there are bad, cruel men, who never ought to have a horse or dog to call their own. Besides, there are a great many foolish men, vain, ignorant, and careless, who never trouble themselves to think; these spoil more horses than all, just for want of sense; they don't mean it, but they do it for all that."

Another major theme is that of fashion. Over the book it is well iluustrated the fact that fashion and style are not justificable grounds on which to torture or mutilate an animal. No sort of mutilation can be beneficial, istead humans should leave this matter to God and not interfere with the natural order of things:"For fashion!" said the old horse with a stamp of his foot; "for fashion! if you know what that means; there was not a well-bred young horse in my time that had not his tail docked in that shameful way, just as if the good God that made us did not know what we wanted and what looked best." "I suppose it is fashion that makes them strap our heads up with those horrid bits that I was tortured with in London.

I found very enigmatic the use of word dumb in the novel. This word which is associated to horse does not mean stupid, but unable to express thoughts. It is easier for humans to ignore the pain of animals because animals cannot express the fact that they are in pain. Sewell is arguing that the fact that the animals do not in reality speak does not mean that they do not feel pain or joy."[We] have no right to distress any of God's creatures without a very good reason; we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words’’.Here Sewell is giving them a voice, and is hoping that such an expression will be enough to change society’s behavior for the better.

This story fascinates me. The most beautiful idea of a friendship is found here. Ginger is a beautiful Chestnut mare whose temper has been spoiled by ill treatment. She bites and kicks almost everyone until the Bertwick coachman learns to calm her and she learns how to be a gentle, hard worker through her friendship with Beauty. The friendship between Ginger and Beauty in particular is very strong and beautiful. These two horses meet, become friends, then both leave their home together and both face the same hardships of becoming ruined. The two are eventually separated and years go by; yet despite the passage of time, Beauty is able to recognize Ginger when he sees her next, and the love between them is still there.
Beauty's other friends include a wise old horse named Sir Oliver, and Captain, a former war horse who served in the Crimean War before going into cab work but Ginger is the one who remains his best friend.

I must confess that this is my favorite animal tale. At first I was surprised by the differences between the book and the film. In the book the story spans from Black Beauty's birth to his old age and Beauty is the narrator while the film presents Beauty's adventures as a secondary character.
My favorite part is the one in which Beauty's mother teaches him how to act in order to have a peaceful life. Just like a mother teaches her children, Duchess advises her son to always do his best and hope for the best in return. Furthermore, she assures him that those who do good will receive good. Because he paid attention to his mother's advice he was rewarded with happiness and peace.
I think that by sharing this life lesson with us, Anna Sewell wanted to highlight the fact that even if we think we are superior to animals we still have a lot to learn from them.

Anne Sewell presents the story of a horse that goes through hard times in the human' s world which proves to be full of ignorance and cruelty. This book also shows us that animals have feelings.This book proves that people from the nineteen century were aware that we should respect animals, that we have to treat them with decency.

What I appreciate most at this book is the way horses are characterized and presesented along the story. Not only that humans proove to be inferior as attitude to animals, but horses have a sense of rationality. They judge humans for their cruelty and addiction for fashion over animals. "My master often drove me in double harness with my mother,because she was steady and could teach me how to go better than a strange horse. She told me the better I behaved the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest always to do my best to please my master." The book is the autobiography of Blak Beauty which has to deal difficult situations along the story considering the fact that it was used to have good masters. After an accident the jobs it had were from a riding and carriage horse, to the rough life of a town cab horse. The propaganda of the book focus on animal rights and the way it should be treated. Some horse owners don't know how to treat a horse and for this cause many problems regarding horses behaviour might appear.

The thing I love the most about animal tales is the freshness of reading an animal's point of view, (even more if is about a horse).
I like the sympathetic point in which the author stands, and how this is an nice exercise of imagination for us, readers.
This book is like a long interview from the antagonist's shoes, or an instruction book where a horse teach us (the educational function seems very obvious to me) how to handle him "Oh! if people knew what a comfort to horses a light hand is, and how it keeps a good mouth and a good temper, they surely would not chuck, and drag, and pull at the rein as they often do". For example the long passage in which Black Beauty explain what breaking in is, and I could notice a fine note of irony at the end:

"...bu the worst of all is, when his harness is once on, he may neither jump for joy nor lie down for weariness. So you see this breaking in is a great thing", then we have one aspect of taming/civilization not understood by the horse -fashion: "I suppose it is fashion that makes them strap our heads up with those horrid bits that I was tortured with..." ,the blinkers also have no utility, and this is the perfect moment to abolish that myth.

The horse learns about human kind, and the kinds of men after having a number of masters, but one important thing is that Black Beauty is re-named with every new master, and even if he knows very well who he is inside, it is a struggle to respond to another and another name, (men are careless with animal identity: <<We'll call him 'Jack', after the old one-shall we, Polly?>>) and to adapt himself to all kinds of masters: "...For I was a 'job horse', and was let out to all sorts of people who wished to hire me;".

But Black Beauty learned not only about animal submission to man, he learned also social differences between men: "wonder if the beautiful ladies ever think of the weary cabman waiting on his box, and his patient beast standing, till his legs get stiff with cold"
By the power of example, we see that every behavior has its explanation, Ginger was so defiant because she was treated badly, and Merrylegs was always understanding and calm because she came from a good place: "I can tell you good places make good horses. I wouldn't vex our people for anything; I love them, I do."

We also have the translation from some body language: "I could not say <<good-by>>, so I put my nose into his hand".
Black Beauty wants us to see the issues that occur from being in the service of men: the loss of liberty, identity, and most of all that the carelessness of men can kill: "...there are a great many foolish men, vain, ignorant, and careless, who never trouble themselves to think; these spoil more horses than all, just for want of sense; they don't mean it, but they do it for all that"

The most valuable lesson is that "Horses are used to bear their pain in silence", and we have the responsibility to treat them good.
Related to the previous discussion I think the word "dumb" stands for what we call "dobitoc" in Romanian, it is true there is a 'inflation' in using some words that end up being pejorative.

This is a nice reading, but it didn't impressed me that much, maybe because some time ago I read Tolstoy's "Holstomer" that is a more sensible approach of the same subject (and nothing compares to Tolstoy's sensibility) , and it has more reliable and detailed mechanisms of thinking of the animal kind.

Black Beauty is observed from the beginning of her life when she stayed with her mother who take care of her. She was born in a beautiful farm with beautiful places around, very beautiful described in the book. Her mother told her, in the beginning of the book, about the types of the masters: there are good ones and bad ones. This actually happened further, she has got good masters and bad masters. She suffers a lot, and endure the bad comportment of the bad masters.
This book makes the difference between good people and bad people, between good masters and bad masters. This is dedicated actually for owners of animals and especially for owners of horses, because from this book they have to understand better the feelings of a horse and how this should be treated as an individual soul who need affection from their owner.

I agree to what Miss Cosa shared thought on the animals which suffer because of people's desire to be fashionable. What is interesting is the fact that the animals seem to have more faith in God and a much more developed sense of a divinity than humans themselves when approaching this. As shown by the quote chosen by Miss Cosa, they believe that God made them perfect and that people mutilating His creations is downright illogical.

My point is, in this book, animals seem to be very human, in fact, I believe they have more humanity than people themselves. One of the most important things that caught my attention was the fact that Anna Swell gave her animals not just the ability to be trained, but the ability to be EDUCATED. These horses are the only animals I've met in stories which can acquire full competences (knowledge, abilities and attitudes). For example, Black Beauty learns how to behave nicely by the words he gets from his mother, he then begins to apply the theory imposed by his mother by becoming gentle and, what's more, he even likes being this way as it is his way of rewarding his masters for their kindness (in the first part of the book). The same thing goes with his being trained.
The horses also have the ability to process each experience, whether it's something they see, a story they hear or something they experience themselves. They analyse what happens and draw their own conclusions on what they can learn and apply from it, which, unfortunately, is more than I can say about the majority of people I know.