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Author’s Note
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in War Horse, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dignity and Humanity
Hope and Loss
Love and Loyalty
The Horrors of War
Summary
Analysis
When Joey, a horse, is six months old, he loses his mother at an auction. Someone quickly buys her, because she is a valuable draft horse, but people express less interest in Joey, a wild-eyed Thoroughbred-draft horse mix. After the farmer, Joey’s new master, successfully bids on him, he climbs into the ring with four friends to tie up the colt. They violently subdue him. The farmer ties Joey to the back of his farm cart and hauls him home, but Joey fights all the way, arriving soaked in blood and sweat.
Joey introduces himself to readers with a story of loss as buyers at the livestock auction separate him from his mother. This foreshadows the many losses he will suffer in the early years of his life—and his ability to survive this first separation suggests the hope that will see him through the rest. The farmer’s violence and cruelty offer an early warning to Joey that humans all too often fail to see the value and dignity in one another and in all creatures.
Themes
The farmer puts Joey into the stable with his kindly draft horse, Zoey. But when she tries to comfort Joey, the farmer strikes her and tells her to keep away from the colt. Then he stumbles into his house, leaving Joey and Zoey without food or water. But soon, Albert, the farmer’s son, comes to the stable with Albert’s mother. Albert looks at Joey with admiration, especially for his fine coat and the white cross on his nose. From Albert’s conversation with his mother, Joey learns that the farmer has a habit of drinking too much, especially on auction days. He should have bought a calf on the night he came back with Joey—whom he purchased out of spite after a perceived rival, Farmer Easton, made the opening bid.
At first, Joey’s experience with the farmer seems to suggest that animals are kind (like Joey’s mother and Zoey) while humans are cruel. But Albert immediately recognizes Joey’s value as a living creature, in contrast to his father. And it turns out that the farmer has compromised his own humanity by drinking, turning himself into a mean, ugly creature instead of a dignified one. If he can only learn to see clearly (by staying sober) he might come to have a better appreciation of the lives of others, even horses.
Themes
Declaring that his father never made a better decision than buying Joey, even if he made it in drunkenness, Albert climbs into the stall and approaches the horse. He talks softly and continuously, calming the colt enough to rub the sweat and dirt from his coat, clean the sore spots on his face where the halter rubbed it, and bring him fresh sweet hay and water. Finally, he gives the colt his name and promises to return in the morning. His mother criticizes him for talking to horses, “obstinate and stupid” creatures that can’t understand language. But Joey gratefully realizes he’s found a lifelong friend.
Albert’s instinctive appreciation for Joey—and his caretaking instinct toward the horse—contrast sharply with the farmer’s rough treatment. The farmer sees Joey as just another farm implement, a living tool. But Albert sees him as an individual, valuable in and of himself. Albert’s kindness gives Joey hope—a reason to look forward to living—and their mutual love confirms the dignity of both boy and horse.
Themes
