In fact all the ‘baddies’, apart from the war itself, are offstage really.
I also thought Morpurgo did something that was particularly clever, and that was to not create any major villains. There are some very successful moments for example when Joey crosses no man’s, interestingly when it is just Joey describing his surrounding and the atmosphere, was very eerie indeed. Great to illustrate to children the effects of war and quite shocking, as an adult I wanted further character development before I could really feel losses as and when they came, even in the case of Emilie which should have been much more effecting. As the story plays out further characters, it is a war after all, might not be around for all that long and so characters are never quite feel fully developed. This is also probably much more effective on its intended audience as this book is aimed at a younger market and so in a way makes this more accessible, we all like animals on the whole when we are younger don’t we? Yet as an adult reading this it added a certain distance, it was emotive and I could imagine as a kid this book hitting home but as an adult it really wasn’t. It gives a very different spin on the whole war idea, a different angle in many ways. In some ways Joey narrating this is a really interesting idea. Despite the fact I know you can all imagine what happens with the novel I don’t want to give too much more away but we do from this point see the war through the eyes of a horse. On the farm he meets Albert and the two form an instant bond, slowly but surely Joey becomes one of the finest horses around, something Albert’s father never believed possible, yet when war is declared Albert’s father sees an opportunity of financial gain and the fates of Joey and Albert are changed, especially as Albert is not old enough to fight. Joey is a half bred foal when he is separated from his mother at an auction, ‘little I was worth’, and bought by an alcoholic farmer at a market in Devon who doesn’t actually want him but buys him as he is so cheap. Interestingly ‘War Horse’ both excels and in some ways fails because of this device. Like child narrators, animal narration can kill a book with one out of place word or description. As soon as I realised this I thought something a little ruder than ‘oh no’ because my saccharine alert had been switched on. I didn’t think I was going to like ‘War Horse’ when I started it, not because war books are so hit and miss with me or because I don’t like horses, both facts are true yet I knew this was coming from the title so was ready, but because I didn’t expect the novel to be narrated by the horse, Joey, himself. Egmont Books, paperback, 1982, fiction, 182 pages, borrowed from the library
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