5 Timeless Lessons of Black Beauty: Why Everyone Should Read It Today
- The unfailing power of empathy
The story is grounded in the reality of our co-existence as living beings and is therefore universal in its applicability. It applies to animals, humans, and the rest of the living, breathing world around us. It is a poignant portrayal of the distressed condition of the poor cart riders who develop a certain callousness and lack of empathy towards their horses and passengers, that is forced upon them by poverty and work without break.
The cruppers (looped behind a horse’s tail), the breeches (passed behind a draft animal’s haunches), the halter, the iron shoes, the bridle with blinkers, the bit that goes into the animal’s mouth, the headstall (that has the bit and the bridle), the martingale and the girth – as if these accouterments weren’t enough for the horses, they were made to carry heavy loads and unkind passengers up and down the rocky hills.
- Co-existence is about friendship
The carefree colt standing under the apple tree in Birtwick with his friends, turning into a handsome well-bred horse, Black Beauty tells us this painful yet liberating story in first person. He changes many masters during his brave and formidable journey, where the only joy he experiences comes through compassion from his masters who befriend him and through his dear friend Ginger. Despite her distinct personality, Black Beauty accepts Ginger and she opens up to him, sharing the thick and thin of her journey until one day when they are separated. They do meet again on a high note when the story unfolds into showing us the depth of their unforgotten friendship. It is when Black Beauty observes his friend and is deeply saddened by seeing her condition. He prays with all his heart to liberate her from her mental and physical trauma.
- Lessons of resilience
Black Beauty demonstrates incredible resilience and the ability to endure hardships. Despite facing challenges as a horse newly charged with carrying the passengers, men and women of displeasing nature, he still remains hopeful of finding a kind master and a place he can call his own and remains open to friendship, the way he experienced it in his initial training at Birtwick with his master and his mother who teaches him, how important it is to serve and treat the masters well.
- Experiencing intense emotions
Through Beauty’s life, the story pulls the reader into its emotional highs and lows, experiencing intense emotions and emerging victorious and hopeful. It teaches the children that life will have creases; situations beyond our control, and while the physical pain might take its own sweet time to heal, the mental state of positivity is the ultimate bridge to cross the river. It was fascinating to see Black Beauty go through the turmoil and still stay hopeful of finding a new life, especially towards the end when he is no younger and cannot be a fine runner as earlier, on account of his leg injury. He teaches the essential lesson of what happens when we experience pain on losing someone close, or when our body and mind are at odds with each other.
- Timeless power of living-breathing emotions.
The story belongs to a different era, culture, and geography than ours. It adds a perspective to our limited knowledge about the world and its intricacies beyond our reach, known only to those who breathe and experience it. From their survival, language, sartorial choices, architecture, flora, language and style of communication, the fauna, to the cuisine and the transport systems, the story set in lively historical backdrops, tells us everything in a natural and participative tone, where the reader and the storyteller blend in one equation, elope into the same background and disappear in the narrative.
The historical London we see through Beauty’s eyes is in contrast with the London we witness today with the touristy eye. The universal human emotions are not restricted by time or space or species and span through generations, connecting us with history in impossible and magical ways through timeless classics like these