Black Beauty and the other horses in the novel are often confused by human behaviors and practices. These behaviors include consuming alcohol, conforming to arbitrary norms of “fashion,” hunting for sport, and going to war. How does Sewell use the bewilderment expressed by horses to criticize these practices? How does the reaction of the horses to these practices relate to the theme of the Inherent Goodness of Animals?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt highlights the role of animals as objective observers who can sometimes assess situations more accurately than humans can. Consider connecting this notion of detached observation to historical progression: What are some practices and behaviors that were once normalized and taken for granted but now seem bizarre or hard to understand? What current practices and norms would seem strange or confusing if an animal or alien observed them in a completely detached way?

Differentiation Suggestion: For visual or English language learners this prompt could be converted to a visual activity in which students create 2 side-by-side illustrations of an activity—one from a human viewpoint and one from an animal viewpoint. A human perspective of a hunting scene might focus on the excitement and suspense while an animal’s viewpoint might depict the same event as violent and frightening.