The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

{Please read the Author’s Note before proceeding.}

Table of Contents
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse.............................................................................................1
Recurrent Themes – Explanations and Examples:.............................................................................1
Meaning of Certain Sentences and Phrases:........................................................................................4
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Some Important Questions and Answers:...........................................................................................6
More Questions:.....................................................................................................................................9
Authors Note:...........................................................................................................................................10

Recurrent Themes – Explanations and Examples:

Main Theme Explanation

Mourad’s Compassion for  The first instance Mourad’s relationship with animals is
Animals (or) Mourad’s mentioned when he proclaims that he “has a way with a
Relationship/Understanding horse.”
with Animals  The horse was also well-behaved and tame when it was
under Mourad’s control.
 The horse seemed obedient to Mourad’s commands,
although it doesn’t behave the same way with Aram.
 He says that he can get the horse “to do anything he wants
it do.”
 The explanation given by Mourad for the above points is
that he had a “simple and honest” “understanding with the
horse”
 Later in the story, Mourad also “repairs the hurt wing of a
 Robin” that was previously unable to fly.
 This is the second time that Mourad had displayed his
compassion for a stray animal.
 Towards the end of the story, as the cousins are returning
the horse, the dogs in the barn seem undisturbed by their
presence and followed them around “without making a
sound.”
 Mourad once again explains that the dogs didn’t bark as he
had “a way with dogs”

This theme is also on display in certain minor instances such

as:
 The horse obeyed Mourad’s commands but not Aram’s.
 Mourad is quite affectionate with the horse – he embrace
it, pats it, and presses his nose to its.
 The horse belonged to someone else yet he still managed
to tame it.
 John Byro also states at the end that the horse seems to be
“stronger” and “better-tempered”, which could be due to
the influence of Mourad and Aram.
 Aram says that the Garoghlanian tribe was “living in the
most amazing and comical poverty in the world.
 Nobody could understand how they procured enough
money to prevent starving, which meant that their means
of earning was limited and uncertain and their earning
The Poverty of the could have also been meager.
Garoghlanian Tribe  Their poverty was also the reason Aram couldn’t believe
that Mourad had bought the white horse, despite the fact
that his tribe was “famous for their honesty” (they
wouldn’t steal, lie or deceive).
 They lived on the edge of the reason (not a probable
reason – so probably just ignore this)
The Garoghlanian Tribe’s  Aram couldn’t believe that he was seeing his cousin with a
Honesty horse – because he knew that his cousin couldn’t have
bought the horse due to their tribe’s aforementioned
poverty, but he couldn’t have stolen it either as the
Garoghlanian Tribe was famous for its honesty.
 They had been famous for their honesty for almost eleven
centuries, since they were one of the wealthiest family in
the world.
 No one in their tribe would take advantage of anybody in
the world, let alone steal.
  Aram was certain that no one in the Garoghlanian Tribe
could be a thief.
 The tribe was so well known for its honesty that when the
original owner (John Byro) of the white horse stumbled
upon his horse in the possession of the cousins, he
declared that it wasn’t his horse.
 John Byro inspected the horse’s teeth and found it to be
identical to his stolen horse, yet he assumed that it must
be the twin of his horse.
 He arrived at this assumption because the “fame of their
tribe’s honesty was well known to him.” Further he stated
that “only a suspicious man would believe his eyes instead
of his heart”
 Aram also describes their poverty as “comical” and he also
mentions that they were once the wealthiest family in the
world.
 Could their poverty be comical because they lost their
wealth by being too honest or too gullible?
 Their poverty is said to be comical and stupid, probably
because it was brought on by the Garoghlanian Tribe’s
attitude toward life, truth and honesty (not a probable
reason – please ignore)
 He was “a man so furious in temper, so irritable, so
impatient that he stopped anyone from talking by roaring,
It is no harm; pay no attention to it.”
 Once when his own son Arak ran eight blocks to the
barber’s shop to tell him that their house was on fire.
Khosrove sat up in the chair and roared, It is no harm; pay
no attention to it.
Uncle Khosrove’s craziness  This can be seen again when John Byro is recounting his
suffering due to robbery of his horse, where he roars the
following phrases: It’s no harm. What is the loss of a
horse? Haven’t we all lost the homeland? What is this
crying over a horse?
 He continues to belittle John Byro’s sufferings until he got
up and stalked out of the house, slamming the screen
door.

Meaning of Certain Sentences and Phrases:

Page: 01:
…when I was nine and the world was full of every imaginable kind of magnificence, and life
was still a delightful and mysterious dream…
To nine year old Aram, the world was still filled with light, hope and beauty. He considered life
to be mysterious, beautiful and filled with happiness.

…and with daybreak not many minutes around the corner of the world it was light enough for
me to know I wasn’t dreaming…
The sun was about to rise in a few minutes but it was early enough for Aram to know that he
wasn’t dreaming (about the white horse and his cousin)

Page: 02:

…my cousin Mourad enjoyed being alive more than anybody else who had ever fallen into the world
by mistake…

Mourad enjoyed living his life more than anyone else who had ever been born.

…Nobody could understand where we ever got money enough to keep us with food in our bellies, not
even the old men of the family…

No one knew the source of income of the Garoghlanian Tribe. Their means of earning was limited and
uncertain and their income was meager.

…couldn’t believe the horse had anything to do with my cousin Mourad or with me or with any of the
other members of our family, asleep or awake…

Aram couldn’t believe that the horse was associated with anyone in Garoghlanian Tribe as none of them
could have afforded to buy a horse and no one in his tribe would resort to thievery.

…There was a pious stillness and humor in each of them which on the one hand delighted me and on
the other frightened me…

Mourad and his horse displayed a religious quietness and state of amazement that both mesmerized
and shocked Aram. He was delighted at the idea of riding a horse yet thought that horse must have been
stolen frightened him.
…If you were crazy about horses the way my cousin Mourad and I were, it wasn’t stealing…

Aram justified stealing the horse by saying that they were crazy about horses. The love and admiration
that he and his cousin had would warrant borrowing the horse for a period of time. Besides, they
weren’t trading the horse for money.

Page: 03:

…Every family has a crazy streak in it somewhere, and my cousin Mourad was considered the natural
descendant of the crazy streak in our tribe…

…A man could be the father of his son’s flesh, but that did not mean that he was also the father of his
spirit…

…The distribution of the various kinds of spirit of our tribe had been from the beginning capricious and
vagrant…

Page: 04:

…Don’t forget that I have a way with a horse…

…The horse stood on its hind legs, snorted, and burst into a fury of speed…

Page: 05:

…I leaped to the back of the horse and for a moment knew the most awful fear imaginable…

…He didn’t sound worried and I knew he’d hide him and not take him back. Not for a while, at any
rate…

…It suddenly dawned on me that he had been taking these early morning rides for some time and had
come for me this morning only because he knew how much I longed to ride…

Page: 06:

…a deserted vineyard which at one time had been the pride of a farmer named Fetvajian…

…John Byro, an Assyrian who, out of loneliness, had learned to speak Armenian…
…What good is a surrey without a horse?...

…I spit on money…

…He has a gentle heart, she said. It is simply that he is homesick and such a large man…

Page: 07:

…A suspicious man would believe his eyes instead of his heart…

John Byro scrutinized the horse; it was an exact replica of the one he owned. He refused to believe that
the two boys had taken his horse, as he knew their family was famed for honesty. So, even when his
rational mind said that it was his horse, his heart refused to believe it.

Some Important Questions and Answers:

Question 1. What does the writer suggest by beginning the story with the following words,
“One day back there in the good old days…”?

Answer: The beginning of the story is suggestive of the fact that the episode that is going to be
narrated is not one from the recent past. On the contrary, it is something that happened years
back. The words ‘good old days’, suggest that the times in the past were better than what they
are at present.

Question 2. What does the writer say about the ‘good old days’?

Answer: The ‘good old days’ refer to a time when the narrator was about nine years old. Then,
to him, the world was full of all possible kinds of splendor. Life then seemed charming and was
as alluring as a mystifying dream.

Question 3. What was the narrator’s first reaction to the horse?

Answer: When the narrator’s cousin, Mourad, came to his house at four in the morning and
woke him up, Aram couldn’t believe what he saw. Mourad was riding a beautiful white horse.
He stuck his head out of the window and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t
dreaming.

Question 4. What did the narrator think of Mourad?

Answer: Unlike the rest of the world, it was only Aram who did not feel that Mourad was
‘crazy’. Aram knew that Mourad enjoyed being alive more than anybody else, and ‘who had
ever fallen into the world by mistake’.
Question 5. What were the chief traits of the members of his family that the narrator could
recall?

Answer: The narrator felt that although the people of his clan were poverty stricken, yet they
were honest. They were proud, honest, and they believed in right and wrong. None of them
would take advantage of anybody in the world, let alone steal.

Question 6. Why was the narrator both delighted and frightened at the same time?

Answer: The narrator was delighted at the magnificence of the horse. He could smell it, hear it
breathing, which excited him but what frightened him was that Mourad could not have bought
the horse. The narrator realized, if he had not bought it, he must have stolen it.

Question 7. How did the narrator establish that Mourad had stolen the horse?

Answer: When the initial fascination and surprise wore out, Aram asked Mourad where he had
stolen the horse from. Aram was certain that no one in their family could afford one. When
Mourad did not deny having stolen the horse, and evaded that question, Aram was sure that he
had stolen the horse.

Question 8. How did Aram justify the act of stealing the horse?

Answer: Aram felt that stealing a horse for a ride was not the same thing as stealing something
else, such as money. Perhaps, it was not stealing at all because they were crazy about horses.
He felt it would not be called stealing until they offered to sell the horse, which they would
never do.

Question 9. What did Aram feel about Mourad’s temperament?

Answer: According to Aram, Mourad had a crazy streak. That made him the natural descendant
of Uncle Khosrove who had a crazy element in him. This crazy streak was common in their tribe
and need not be passed on from a father to the son. The people of the tribe had been, from the
beginning, unpredictable and unrestrained.

Question 10. What happened when Aram tried to ride the horse?

Answer: When Aram kicked into the muscles of the horse, it reared and snorted. Then it began
to run. It ran down the . road to the vineyard of Dikran Halabian where it began to leap over
vines. The horse leaped over seven vines and Aram fell off but the horse continued running.

Question 11. What was the problem the children faced after getting the horse back?

Answer: After Aram had been thrown off, it took Mourad half an hour to find the horse and
bring him back. The next concern was that they did not know where to hide the horse till the
next day, and by then the people had woken up.
Question 12. Where did the boys hide the horse for the night?

Answer: The boys walked the horse quietly to the bam of a deserted vineyard, which at one
time had been the pride of the farmer named Fetvajian. There were some oats and dry alfalfa in
the bam. It was there that they kept the horse.

Question 13. Who was John Byro? What concern did he express at Aram’s place?

Answer: John Byro was an Assyrian farmer who, out of loneliness, had learned to speak
Armenian. He was sad because his white horse, which was stolen a month back, was still not
found. Byro had a surrey a four-wheeled horse-drawn pleasure carriage having two or four
seats which was of no use without a horse.

Question 14. Mourad showed a special concern for animals. Justify.

Answer: Mourad not only had a special understanding with the horse but Aram saw Mourad,
trying to nurse the hurt wing of a young robin which could not fly. He healed the bird and it
took flight. The dogs, too, in John’s farm, did not bark when he went there to put back the
horse.

Question 15. What did John Byro mean when he said, “A suspicious man would believe his eyes
instead of his heart”?

Answer: John Byro scrutinized the horse; it was an exact replica of the one he owned. He
refused to believe that the two boys had taken his horse, as he knew their family was famed for
honesty. So, even when his rational mind said that it was his horse, his heart refused to believe
it.

Question 16. What did John Byro perceive about the horse after it was returned? Why?

Answer: After the horse was returned, John Byro said that the horse was stronger than ever
and also better tempered. It was so because the children loved the horse and had taken good
care of it. Moreover, it had exercised without the weight of the surrey.

Question 17. Why did Aram think that the poverty of his tribe was “comical”?

Answer: Aram describes their poverty as “comical” and he also mentions that they were once
the wealthiest family in the world. Their poverty could be comical because they lost their
wealth by being too honest or too gullible. Their poverty is said to be comical and stupid,
probably because it was brought on by the Garoghlanian Tribe’s attitude toward life, truth and
honesty.
Question 18. Why wasn’t Mourad worried when he had to hide the horse for the night?
Answer: Mourad had stolen the horse over a month ago and since then, he was hiding his horse
in the deserted vineyard. He was also used to it, hence he wasn’t worried when he had to hide
the horse as he already knew to a hideout and he had some experience doing it as well.

Question 19. Why did the boys decide to return the horse to John Byro?

Answer: One morning on the way to Fetvajian’s deserted vineyard they ran into the farmer
John Byro who was on his way to town. Upon seeing the white horse the farmer studied it
eagerly. He examined it and declared that the horse was identical to his stolen horse. But he
said he trusted the honesty of their tribe “A suspicious man would believe his eyes instead of
his heart,” he said. The level of trust that the farmer had in their tribe’s honesty reminded the
boys of the values of the Garoghlanian tribe. It made them feel guilty for violating the honor
and honesty of their tribe. Hence, they decided to do the rightful thing and return the horse to
the farmer.

Question 20. How did the farmer examine the white horse and what did he conclude after the
encounter?

Answer: The farmer, John Byro, examined the horse by inspecting its teeth. He concluded that
the horse was identical to his stolen horse and said that it must have been a twin of his horse.
He refused to believe that Mourad and Aram had stolen his horse as he knew about the
honesty about the Garoghlanian tribe.

More Questions:

Question 1. Write a brief note on the Garoghlanian family as perceived by the narrator.

Question 2. What did Aram feel about the ‘crazy streak’ in the family?

Question 3. Describe the ride of Aram and Mourad when they went out together for the first
time.

Question 4. Describe John Byro’s meeting with his horse and the two boys. What impact did it
have on him?

Question 5. “A man could be the father of his son’s flesh, but that did not mean that he was
also the father of his spirit.” - Explain with reference to the text:
Question 6. Describe Mourad’s various encounters with animals. What does this tell you about
his character?
Question 7. Write a character sketch of Mourad. Compare and contrast his character with
Khosrove:
Question 8. Describe the encounter between the boys and John Byro:

Authors Note:
The Table of Contents also act as links. Press CTRL and click on them and they will take you
the respective topic and save you some time.
Recurrent themes discusses the recurrent or important themes and topics in the lesson. These
topics are explained in detail with references from the text that are enclosed in “ … ”.
For example: one recurrent theme in The Summer of a Beautiful White Horse is Mourad’s
relationship with animals. Various instances that correspond to this theme are explained in the
right-side column with references to the text.
Some Important Questions are provided as well. Answers have also been provided for some
the questions.
The questions that have been left unanswered are either left open for interpretation or the
answers can be found in the text or they were simply just too long.
Meaning of Certain Sentences and Phrases may or not be updated before this evening
depending upon my schedule; but to be honest, it probably won’t be updated.
If you have any doubts regarding the Recurrent Themes section feel free to text me.