Black Beauty, part 2

The second part of Black Beauty appears to be a social commentary. Black Beauty changes hands many times and the reader is exposed to several different owners, learning more about the injustices not only towards horses, but towards people of the lower classes as well. The people in power are mainly depicted as unsympathetic and greedy who leave the poor to fend for themselves. Examples included in the book point out that because the lower classes, such as the non-independent cab drivers, often have no choice but to overwork the horses. This section also continues on with theme of comparison through the different master for which Black Beauty works.

Sewell subtly begins her social commentary through metaphor “Men will go fast, and if one can’t keep up to the other horses, it is nothing but whip, whip, whip, all the time.”[1] Black Beauty refers here to zealous drivers, but this reference also alludes to the pressures of society which apply to the Victorian Era as well as to today. Society pushes people continually in the ongoing rat race; we must continue to work, work, work. For many people working night and day on a meager salary is often not enough to feed a family. We see this situation illustrated several times in the later chapters of Black Beauty. Under Mr. Barry’s care Black Beauty suffered because her groomsman, Filcher, stole her corn to feed his family. He could not keep up with the physiological demands of his family, perhaps a product of low wages, and he in turn made the horse suffer. The cab horses reveal most intense example of the pressure to make money. Seedy Sam appears to be cruel to his horses, whipping and overworking them, pushing the animals towards their own death. However, in his view, he has no choice. Unlike Jerry, Sam does not own his own cab or horse and must make enough profit to “first pay the master, and then to provide their own living.”[2] [3]British currency He believed that caring for your horse’s well-being was a luxury and that “you must put your wife and children before the horse”[4] I believe this is where the reader begins to understand that man does impose tough standards and treatments upon animals, and that these men are often under tough standards and treatments as well, created by individuals of their own species who happen to have more power. The Governor, who originally criticized Sam, realizes this depressing fact sympathizing “It is hard times for both man and beast, and who’s to mend it I don’t know.” [5] The butcher’s son again emphasizes this same pressure to perform from those above us. He wears out his horse in an effort to deliver meats to demanding customers on time.[6] Time is money Today we pen up animals for slaughter because it is more cost and time effective just like the cab drivers’ treatment of the horses. It is my belief that this problem pervades all eras; man is apt to step on those below him to achieve personal gain.

Sewell also criticizes the extravagant and selfish lifestyles of the upper classes. Jerry, a hard-working, honest man is waits outside on New Year’s Eve and almost dies because of the carelessness of two drunk, aristocratic party-goers. Additionally, when Jerry tries to help a poor woman to a free cab ride, two zealous voters grab her cab, demanding a ride.

Black Beauty reveals itself as not only a novel promoting sympathy towards animals, but sympathy towards life in general “whether they be man or beasts”[7]. Every person has the obligation to treat all life forms with respect, including standing up for the oppressed. “If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and yet do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”[8] I believe that Jerry is the ultimate hero in the novel. He not only treats Black Beauty with respect and love, but he works to improve the lives of others as well, from a woman on the street to a horse in the carriage behind him.

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[1] Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1993), 122.

[2] Black Beauty, 161.

[3] http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/Web/graphics/graphics.nsf/graphics/Moneysurvey/$file/money.gif

[4] Black Beauty, 163.

[5] Black Beauty, 163-164.

[6] http://psdblog.worldbank.org/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/12/time_is_money_3.jpg

[7] Black Beauty, 59.

[8] Black Beauty, 161.