Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is a novel that discusses animal abuse. Black Beauty is a well-bred horse whose life takes him from owner to owner. Some of his owners are kind, and some are cruel. Throughout the novel, Black Beauty learns a lot about humans and the ways in which they interact with their world.
The first lesson Black Beauty learns is from his mother. He is playing with some of the other colts in the pasture. He and his friends are bucking and rearing and generally roughhousing. Black Beauty's mother calls him over and reminds him that while his playmates are cart horses, he comes from a proud lineage, and he needs to act in a manner that reflects it.
Black Beauty lives a happy, carefree life with his mother in the lush green meadow. When she goes out to work for the day, her son is free to have fun, to run around and gallop with the six young colts in the meadow beside him. But Black Beauty's mother is not very pleased. She takes the young foal aside one day and tells him that he must not act like the young colts, forever kicking and biting, even if it's just play. The colts are good horses, but they're cart-horse colts and so haven't learned good manners. Black Beauty, on the other hand, comes from a good bloodline; his grandfather twice won the cup at the Newmarket race-course. That's why his mother wants him to grow up to be a good and gentle horse, to lift his feet up well whenever he trots, and to never kick or bite, even in play.
No comments:
Post a Comment