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Chapter 1
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
Joey and Albert grow up alongside each other on the farm. Whenever Albert has time free of school or farm chores, he trains Joey. The horse comes whenever Albert gives his low, owl-like whistle because he loves the kind and gentle boy. Zoey spends most of her time helping the farmer. Joey never loses his fear of the man, even though he’s far less cruel when he’s not drunk. And Albert makes sure to protect the horse—just in case—on Tuesdays, when his father visits the local pub.
The love between Joey and Albert allows both to be happy during these years, even though the farmer’s drunken potential for violence hangs like a threatening cloud over their lives. They share a bond despite the fact that Albert can’t understand Joey the way Joey understands Albert. And the fact that the farmer’s demeanor improves when he’s sober suggests that, if he can overcome his vices, he can live the full expression of his humanity.
Themes
One Tuesday evening when Joey is two years old and Albert is 15, Albert goes to the village in the evening to help ring the church bells. He puts Joey and Zoey in the stable first, reasoning that the farmer won’t bother them in there if they’re together. But while the music of the church bells still rings across the hills, the farmer returns from the market very drunk. He stumbles into the barn with a whip in his hand. He tells Joey, his “proud little devil,” that he’s made a bet with Farmer Easton that he can train the horse to pull the plow by the end of the week.
Albert and Joey already have an unshakable bond, and Albert proves his loyalty to the horse by his ongoing efforts to shield Joey from the farmer’s occasional violence and unpredictability. But he can’t always be there, and the farmer’s bet shows that he continues to think of Joey as a thing for his use rather than recognizing his dignity and value as a living being. Thus, he resents Joey’s free spirit and refusal to be bullied.
Themes
Determined to make good on his purchase of Joey and his bet with Farmer Easton, the farmer plans to fit Joey for a collar that night and begin his training in the morning. Waving the whip in the air, he promises Joey that he will be whipped until he bleeds if he fails to cooperate. Terrified by the whip, Joey turns around and bucks, kicking the farmer to the ground. The farmer pulls himself out of the barn, cursing and muttering.
In demanding that the horse almost miraculously win a bet that he himself foolishly made, the farmer betrays the extent to which he views Joey as a tool for his own use and enrichment. His approach—trying to bully Joey into submission rather than working collaboratively with him—further suggests his lack of regard for nature. In response, Joey asserts his right to self-preservation by refusing to allow the farmer to touch him.
Themes
In the morning, the farmer returns to the barn with a sad and fearful Albert. Both carry draft collars. The farmer tells Albert that he would have shot Joey the night before if Mother hadn’t begged him not to. He threatens to get rid of Joey if Albert cannot tame and train him within the week. Albert says he can and makes his father promise to never raise a whip to Joey again. The farmer assures Albert he won’t—he’d rather shoot Joey than go near him ever again.
The extent to which Joey’s actions the night before endangered his life on the farm only become clear in the morning. The farmer doesn’t value him as an individual at all; it took the actions of both Albert and his mother to save Joey’s life. Still, Albert shows loyalty to Joey by standing up to his father and insisting that he never threaten the horse with a whip again.
Themes
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Albert’s attitude surprises Joey when the boy begins his training. Albert scolds Joey for stupidly attacking the farmer and warns him that he’ll never get a second chance again. He must learn to plow if he wants to stay on the farm. Joey struggles with ploughing since he’s only half draft horse. He finds the work painful and exhausting. At first, Albert shouts and threatens him frequently with the whip. But As Joey learns the task, Albert begins to speak more gently again. And by the end of the week, Joey and Zoey have ploughed the field.
Albert trains Joey with a firm hand, but his love for the horse and loyalty to him keeps his strictness from devolving into violence and cruelty. In turn, Joey works as hard as he possibly can for Albert, rewarding the boy’s kindness and love with faithful service. And their mutual love and loyalty accomplish the impossible when Albert trains Joey to function as a draft horse in record time.
Themes
Several months later, Albert tells Joey and Zoey about the news of an impending war in continental Europe. He doubts it will affect the family on their rural English farm, but he wishes he could become a soldier, and he imagines how imposing he and Joey would be together on a battlefield. Within weeks, the British have declared war on the Germans, and the farmer rushes home to tell his family the news. Albert’s mother worries, but the farmer promises her that it will be a short war, with the British quickly and decisively putting the Germans back in their place.
The war that initially seems so far away rapidly comes very close to home for Albert and Joey, foreshadowing their impending separation. Albert’s desire to become a soldier betrays his innocence and inexperience; he knows nothing of war’s brutality or its costs. This inexperience comes across as arrogance in the farmer, who naturally assumes his side will easily win.
Themes
