When I started reading Black Beauty, the first thing I found interesting was the perspective it is written from. I recall watching this movie as a child, but I don't think it had quite the impact as reading it. Reading it from the horse's point of view made me feel like the quintessential horses rump. Apparently I've spent a good portion of my life in vain. I've bought shoes made of leather. I wear a belt made of leather. When I was a kid, I rode my horse on a saddle made of leather. I found that to be a strange fact as I read this book. In fact, the whole thing was sort of strange in an interesting way.
I knew before my old buddy Max Money Train Mad Dog passed away, I had a connection with animals. With my latest dog, I wouldn't say it was a 100% emotional attachment either. Old Max Money was a smart little rascal. I know what most people think, too," most people think their dog is smart." I'm guilty of that here, so I admit. But I didn't teach him how to open the toilet seat with his nose and drink out of the porcelain dog bowl , or turn the door knob when it rained or how to shake with his both hands, or paw rather (they're almost human). I guess the point I'm slowly getting at is that animals are rational, if not wholly, then, to an extent. No, they can't talk about what's on their mind. They can't articulate, in any way that we understand, how they feel or communicate to us what they might thinking. The connection that I had with my late friend was as much rational as it was emotional. Interestingly enough, when I think about it, we even had our own language. He understood what I said what I signaled and even what never communicated to him. He was intuitive in a way. When I got home, he went outside because he knew it would make it easier on both of us. OK, I'm getting off track. But you get the point. I liked my dog and I miss him....
Anna Sewell is pretty crafty because of the aspect she takes in this novel. She writes rather bluntly with an effective use of detail that makes you consider being kind to animals. "I suppose it is fashion that makes them strap our heads up with those horrid bits that I was tortured with in London," (38)
She draws up a character in Ginger that creates the contrast needed with characters. Ginger adds a voice to the animal(s), in this case a horse. Maybe we should listen to Ginger, "these men, who are so wise, had better give orders that in future all foals should be born with their eyes set just in the middle of their foreheads; instead of on the side; they always think they can improve upon Nature and mend what God has made." (41)
Speaking of perspective:
This brought me back in time to Jude and the pig. My feeling when I read that was that we should try to kill animals more humanely. I already do what I can, when I can. And I think that's enough. Of course, maybe I shouldn't stray from my diet like I did last night when I headed to Wendy's out of convenience. But that's life on the run as they say...
Plainly speaking, I'm going to end with this quote out of convenience because I like it. I guess it's what Sewell does with the oblique manner in which she hits the reader's consciousness, "and that rather a hard hit about the soldiers; but--well--I'll think about it," (45)
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