how does the story "the summer of the beautiful white horse " convey the message of honesty and integrity and how do the characters maintain its irrespective of their desire to keep the horse with themselves?
Answers
In the story, " The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse”, the moral of the story is clearly depicted as honesty is the best policy. The various characters help in justifying their roles as well.
Following is the story of what happened and how its linked to honesty
This story is a narration by a 9 year old boy 'Aram Garoghlanian'. He belongs to the Armenian community of California.
One day, early morning Mourad, cousin of Aram wakes him up and shows him his white horse. Aram is surprised when he sees the horse. Aram had always wanted to ride a horse but he thinks it might be stolen by his cousin Mourad who is considered crazy by the family. Aram had always wanted learn horse riding but he couldn't because his family is poor and therefore couldn't afford such a hobby.
Because of his love for horse riding Aram asks Mourad once whether the horse is stolen or not. But since the Garoghlanian family is known for their honesty despite them being poor, he then rides the horse along with Mourad.
However, it is indeed true that the horse was stolen. Mourad had stolen the horse from John Byro; who suspects the boys of the theft.
Aram tells Mourad to keep the horse for a time period of just six months so that Aram can learn to ride during that time.
Somewhere in the middle of the story Aram wants to ride the horse by himself but Mourad tells him that it is up to the horse. Only Mourad can ride because, according to him he has a way with horses. Yet, when Aram tries to ride the horse it throws him off. The horse runs away in the middle and the two boys find the runaway horse, hide him in an abandoned barn, and go home.
In the end they return the horse to its rightful owner.
Moral:
The narrator depicts the concept as a feature of a childlike story. It shows the struggle one faces when going down the path of dishonesty. Like Aram’s continuing inability to ride the horse shows that firstly all childhood dreams do not come true and secondly suggests that how not being honest led to them facing such challenges. That the one thing which Aram wanted to do, he couldn't do it the way he wanted to.
In the end since the main characters treat the horse by trapping him in and abandoned barn all alone and go back home. It makes them realize their cruel treatment towards the animal. Also, doing fraud and stealing the horse from its owner was also wrong and since their family is known for their honesty it was bad enough that they did something bad which dishonored their family name. They could loose the one thing which their family had. Thus they returned the horse to its rightful owner.