2. About the Author – Anna Sewell
* March 30th, 1820 – April 25th 1878
* Was born in Great Yarmouth, England
* Her family was devout Quaker family
* Mother, Mary Wright Sewell, was an author,
a poet of children book
* Severely injured her ankles. Was lame and was unable
to stand without crutch
* Used horse-drawn carriages a lot
= contributed to her love of horses
= concern for humane treatment of animals
3. Background of the Story
* Black Beauty – main character, narrator
* At Beauty’s first home
(with pleasant field, pond, trees, lawns.)
* From the young age of Beauty~
To old age of Beauty
* 1870s, many works for horses-pulling
carriages, cabs, carts, farming.
4. Summary of the Story
* It is a story of a horse named Black Beauty. In the
beginning, he lives very fine young life with his mom,
however, when he is sold, first to one owner, then another,
and another, he learns how hard and sad horses’ life can be.
He suffers from many incidents with people’s personalities
like kindness, consideration, sympathy, cruelty, and stupidity.
At the end, Beauty meets his previous groom who was very
friendly and kind to him. The man promises him not to sell
again.
* Gorden → John Manly → Joe Green → Lord Gray →
Reuben Smith → Mr. Barry → Filcher → Jerry →Jakes →
Nicholas → Joe Green
5. Conflict
* Not exact conflict – because Beauty undergoes many hard time while he
meets many grooms, and people
* He has many conflicts with each people he met
* Gorden ─ good horse rider/ offers good surroundings to horses
John Manly ─ respects horses with care/ understands horses’ condition, feeling
Joe Green ─ less experienced boy/ loves horses like his family/ thinks much of horses
Lord Gray ─ cold(in outward)warm-hearted
Reuben Smith ─ clever with horses/ excellent driver/ drinks too much/ makes Beauty hurt
Mr. Barry ─ knew few about horses
Filcher ─ groom/ steals Beauty’s food/ makes Beauty dowdyish
Jerry ─ warm-hearted/ man who drives cab/ kind to horse, people
Jakes ─ arrogant owner/ forces horse to carry heavy loads/ ignores the situation
Nicholas ─ ruthless cab horse owner
6. Climax
* Chapter 12: Hard times
* Life with Jakes and Nicholas
* Before Beauty meets Joe Green at last
* Jakes- Beauty’s work was pulling the cart. Some carts were very
heavy so that Beauty rests a lot. Every time, Beauty rests, Jakes shouted at
horse and whipped across Beauty’s back. One day, a woman stopped Jakes’
whipping horses because it was so cruel. The life of pulling heavy carts
everyday made Beauty exhausts.
* Nicholas- “It was a terrible life, and sometimes, like poor Ginger, I wished I
was dead.”(P.67) Nicholas used cruel whip with sharp thing at the end
which cut Beauty and mad him bleed. One day, four people used the cab
which Beauty was pulling. They realized that Beauty was in hard situation,
almost dying. However, Nicholas and other men ignores it and started
working. Beauty feel in a faint. Though Beauty was sick, Nicholas does not
think seriously. “Then he must go for dog food.” (P.68) Beauty was taken to
the horse fair.
7. Characters 1 : Black Beauty
* Black Horse with white star on the forehead,
one white foot, and little white place on the
back
* Well trained horse, gentle, warm-hearted
* Intelligence : never bite or kick or run away,
“Black Beauty was cleverer than we were, and
saved us all from drowning.” (P. 24)
“I have never ridden a more pleasant horse”
(P.11)
8. Characters 2 : Jerry Barker
* Cab driver in London
* Small man but well-made and quick in movements
* Has peaceful families (Polly, Harry, Dolly)
* “What is your energy to live hard? You are a cab
driver, and has not many things. But you are a
generous and kind man to poor woman, baby, and
horses. How do you have patience against many
rude passengers?”
9. Ending
* Chapter 13 : My last Home
* Black Beauty was taken to horse fair. → young boy, Willie,
bought Beauty. → Beauty got better to have good look
back by Willie’s care→ Joe Green, who was good groom of
Beauty takes Beauty.
* Good ending – Not dying, Not being troubled with
other bad owners. By meeting with good groom, Beauty
was happy. He could forget every bad memories of past
days. Now, he can only retrospect his good days with Joe
who loves horses like their family.
10. Moral Teaching
* Animals have same sense as human that
can feel pain, happiness, sadness, anger
* We should treat animals with love
* Humans (teachers, instructors, grooms) are
important to train others (students, horses).
= People (horses) who get training will get
many influences from instructors (= groom).
The results can be changed.
11. First Impression and Final Words
* Unique because the main character, narrator was
an animal, horse
* Made me to rethink about my attitude, opinion
on animals
* Realized that there are many mistakes made
from human to animals
* Recommend you to read the book to grow our
thoughts of surroundings like animals, friends,
plants, etc, how we were treating them.
