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Chapter 16
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
The British troops load Joey into a veterinary ambulance for his trip to the animal hospital. As it rattles over the rough terrain, he loses his footing and doesn’t even have the strength to stand back up when the ambulance turns onto a smooth road. When he finally arrives at the hospital—a grand house with a magnificent set of stables full of friendly horses—gentle hands help him stand up and exit the vehicle. An admiring crowd gathers around Joey until a large, commanding man with a giant red moustache and an immaculately pressed uniform (who the soldiers call “Sergeant Thunder”) yells at them to get back to work. Joey may be famous—the only one that’s ever been retrieved alive from no-man’s-land—but are only a dozen men to care for more than a hundred sick and injured animals. Only the “young lazybones” who’s been assigned to this case should still be with Joey.
At this point in his story, the war has taken pretty much everything from Joey from his beloved Albert through a whole parade of other kind souls he’s loved and lost along the way. His physical exhaustion maps onto his emotional exhaustion, literally bringing him to his knees. But he rallies amid the sound and excitement of the animal hospital, which promises a kind of care and attention he’s missed since he left Emilie and her grandfather. The excited crowd of onlookers—and Sergeant Thunder’s bustling concern to get him assessed—assures Joey that he will get attention here, even if just for his fame in escaping no-man’s-land unharmed.
Themes
Sergeant Thunder tells the soldier charged with Joey’s care to clean him up; the chief veterinarian, Major Martin, wants to examine him in ten minutes. When the soldier replies “Yes, sir,” Joey thinks he recognizes his voice, but he cannot get a good look at the young man’s face. But the young man begins to talk gently to Joey, wondering how on earth he ended up in the middle of no-man’s-land, promising to have him cleaned up soon, and apologizing for being unable to offer him food and water—Major Martin won’t allow it until he’s certain he won’t have to perform surgery on the animal. The longer he talks the surer Joey becomes, and he tries to whinny a greeting to his first friend, Albert.
It’s immediately clear that the as-yet unnamed soldier assigned to care for Joey considers the horses in his care to be his equals; like Albert, Nicholls, Warren, Emilie, and Friedrich, he talks to Joey as if the animal can understand him. Just hours before, Joey wondered how he would be able to go on without his friend Topthorn for companionship and he almost lost hope—even though hope seems to come naturally to him. Yet after the darkness of that loss, his life becomes meaningful again when he’s reunited with his first and best friend.
Themes
Albert doesn’t recognize Joey, but he does reach out to calm the excited animal. Just then, another soldier, David, joins Albert. He gently mocks Albert for talking to horses as if they understand, although Albert maintains that some of them do. He promises that one day he’ll prove it to David. David asks if Albert means when “[his] Joey” shows up. He can’t believe that Albert joined the Veterinary Corps in hope of reuniting with his old horse. With half a million horses in the British Army from northern France to Palestine, David doesn’t know how Albert could possibly find his own, even if he’s still alive. Albert tells David that when he sees Joey, he’ll understand. And then he launches into an oft-repeated catalog of Joey’s features—a red-bay coat, black mane and tail, four exactly equal white socks, and a white cross on his forehead.
The fact that Albert doesn’t recognize Joey points to the shabby and filthy condition of the animal and reminds readers about the wartime horrors Joey has had to endure, from the taxing work of the artillery unit to the more recent dirtying he received while fleeing the battle. David gently mocks Albert’s hope of finding Joey—hope built on the love and loyalty between the human and his equine friend. Yet, this hope has proved to be an important force in Albert’s life, keeping him going in the intervening years and helping him to become the man he now is.
Themes
David gently cleans the mud from Joey’s legs, discovering four exactly equal white socks. He reports this to Albert; Albert thinks David is mocking him. Then, David gently brushes the dust and dirt from Joey’s face—uncovering his white cross. In a quiet voice, he tells Albert that, although he can barely believe it, this fits Albert’s description of Joey exactly. At first, Albert doesn’t believe David, but then he stops what he’s doing and circles around to look at the horse’s face. Joey looks into Albert’s beloved, slightly older face. To determine once and for all whether this is his Joey, Albert removes the harness from his head, walks a few paces to the gateway and gives his distinctive, owl-like whistle. Without hesitation, Joey trots to him as he used to do, and Albert embraces his long-lost friend.
The book claims that having hope is a necessary condition for living—it is what helps people (and horses) through their darkest moments. Albert and Joey have survived so long without each other only because they both believe in Albert’s promise to find his friend once more. In other words, they’ve both survived the war thus far because of their hope for a better future. And the reunion vindicates their hope, despite all the odds that were stacked against it. Touchingly, the proof of their identities rests on the reenactment of an ancient ritual of communication, which proves to Albert not only that Joey recognizes him, but also that the horse can understand him, too.
Themes
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