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Chapter 3
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
In the farmyard, the farmer mounts Zoey and begins to ride her into the village, leading Joey behind on a rope. Joey’s too curious and interested to be afraid, and furthermore, he trusts Zoey. He’s been to the village before—he even encountered his first motorcar there recently—but he’s never seen it bustling with such activity. The farmer takes him to the village green, where he finds Captain Nicholls, an infantry officer in the British Army. As the kind and gentle Nichols looks at Joey approvingly, they discuss their verbal agreement the night before for the farmer to sell Joey to the Army for £40.
Joey’s walk to the village demonstrates key elements of his character: he has a natural curiosity and trust in others (despite the farmer’s sometimes alarming and sometimes cruel treatment) that makes him adaptable in a variety of circumstances. Together, his curiosity and trust give him hope—the feeling that life will continue to be valuable to him. And as the farmer plans to sell him, Joey will need this hope to see him through the despair he will suffer through losing Albert.
Themes
Captain Nicholls likes the look of Joey. But he tells the farmer that the Army veterinarian must inspect him before they can finalize their deal. The farmer behaves anxiously, afraid of getting caught selling Albert’s beloved friend, but he allows Nicolls to lead the horse away. Joey trusts the Captain enough to follow him without hesitation. The vet quickly gives Joey his seal of approval. When Nicholls returns to the farmer to hand over the money, the farmer strokes Joey’s neck with tears in his eyes and whispers an apology for his poor treatment of the horse.
Joey trusts Nicholls for the same reason he trusted Albert instantly: both humans seem able to recognize Albert’s inherent dignity and value as a living being, and both instantly treat him with appreciation and the kindness of friendship. The farmer, for all his faults, shows some human decency in this moment with his apologies and his tears. Belatedly, he's realizing that Joey’s life has its own value, so he comes to regret mistreating the horse.
Themes
Suddenly realizing that he’s being “abandoned” again, Joey begins to shriek. As the farmer and Zoey ride away, kind hands stroke the inconsolable horse. Then, through the crowd, Joey sees Albert running toward him. Realizing that his father sold Joey to the Army, Albert begs Captain Nicholls for the opportunity to join the Army so that he won’t be separated from Joey. But he’s only 15, and recruits must be at least 17. Captain Nicholls approves of Albert’s feisty spirit, and he fears that the war will be longer than most people expect. He tells Albert to join up as soon as he turns 17 and to ask to join Nicholl’s cavalry regiment. In the meantime, he promises to take excellent care of Joey. Trying to hold back tears and force a smile, Albert strokes Joey’s nose and promises to find him again someday.
Joey finds this second loss nearly as painful as his first. Despite Nicholl’s kindness, he isn’t Joey’s beloved master, Albert. To make matters almost more painful, Albert appears out of thin air to confront Nicholls. But this encounter also plants seeds of hope in the boy and his horse: Nicholls promises to do what he can to reunite the pair. And Albert promises Joey that he will find his beloved friend again, somehow, even if he has to wait for two years before he can think of volunteering. Nicholl’s grim prediction that the war will last at least that long points toward the brutality of the conflict that will feature in the book’s antiwar message.
Themes
