Hazel Dehn

English 4715
Primary Research Paper
10/15/2014

Brownie:
Adventures of a Horse in Peace and War

Children have always loved stories about animals and this is reflected in much of
childrens literature. From Black Beauty to Peter Rabbit, authors have often included animals in
their storytelling because children are able to relate to them well, making them feel protective
and loving toward something. It also allows them to compensate for an essentially powerless
position. Children always want to be part of the adult world, even though they are too young to
actively participate in it. Stories with animals give them a sort of window into this world, as seen
in Adventures of a Horse. There are several categories of animal story in childrens literature,
and this book would be designated as a real animal story in that it is told from the animals
perspective and highlights its hardships. This occurs in Adventures of a Horse, with the story
being brought to life for the child through its illustrations, concepts of war and death, the parallel
between the child reader and the animal as well as focus being placed on personal qualities such
as valor, fortitude and empathy.
The book follows a simple farm horse named Brownie who grows up on a farm in East
Germany in the early 19th century. In the first part of the book, entitled Peace, there is a very
idyllic setting with mares and foals playing in a field together with the background of a
prospering farm. There is a young boy in the story, Peter the ploughboy, who takes a liking to
one of the foals, little Brownie, and he even makes a bell for the foal to wear around its neck.
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The chapter goes on to talk about Brownie as he grows up and begins working on the farm as a
cart horse. There is a lot of hard work associated with his new job, but Brownie slowly gets used
to it. Brownie also demonstrates bravery while on the farm when he saves a wagoner from
wolves because he is so quick in getting help.
The second part of the book is entitled War and details how Brownie goes from being a
cart horse to a war horse on the front. Again, Brownie must be trained for his new job and learn
new skills. There is then a very intense battle scene in which Brownies new master, a young
solider, is shot and killed. Brownie is also shot and his leg is injured, but he is found on the
battlefield by the wagoner of the farm where he grew up. After a celebratory scene in which it is
announced that the army has triumphed, Brownie returns to his quiet farm as a respected war
horse and lives out the rest of his life quite happily.
The first thing to consider about this book is the illustrations that accompany the story.
Pictures are often the first thing a child looks at when reading a book, so they are important in
evaluating childrens literature. At the base drawing level, most of the illustrations seem very
exact and detailed. The horses are very detailed as are the people in most scenes and the
background images, at least in the first part of the part of the book, with scenes on the farm.
However, when we get to images of the war in the second half of the story, the images seem to
grow more chaotic and it is harder to draw out individuals except those who are immediately in
the foreground. This can be seen especially on page 14, which is the important battle scene. This
a very wild scene, and it is very difficult to make out anything concrete except a few horses and
soldiers uniforms. There are also some clouds of smoke in the background, but aside from these
few things, there are mostly faceless men and scratched drawings to fill out the landscape. This
same effect can also be seen in the next picture on page 15, with the celebration of the enemy

army being defeated. Even though this is a happier scene from the one on the previous page, it
still seems chaotic and unfocused, with very little detail given to the figures in the crowd or even
the generals carriage, which is described in the text as being very fine and elegant. Comparing
these images then to the peaceful ones presented in the first half of the book, it could be inferred
that the countryside, representing childhood and fun, is much less disordered than the adult world
outside it. Colors also play an important role in the images of the story. Colors appear in the
illustration more as big blotches over an object rather than being carefully colored in. This leads
to colors merging into one another over all the pictures in the book. This brings to mind the
drawings of a child and how children never color inside the lines. They do not necessarily feel
the need for tidiness that adults do. So it is important that it is illustrated with a childs way of
thinking in mind, right down to the way the colors are put on the page. The things that are given
color in an illustration are also key. Brownie, for example, is always easily identifiable as being
colored brown in every picture, so it is very easy for a child to visually see where he is and better
understand the story while following along. Even in the scene on the battle field, Brownies
hindquarters stand out as one of the few colored details in the image. The only other aspect of the
book that seems to be consistently colored is the clothing of any adults or people in the scenes,
so ones eye is immediately drawn to them and what they are doing. This may be intended as a
way for children not just to relate to Brownie the horse, but also people and professions they
might be familiar with in their own lives, such as the farmer and the blacksmith and possibly
even the soldiers in their blue coats.
The war itself is presented in a very depoliticized manner in that it does not mention who
is fighting this war or why, although it can be assumed from where the book is set that Brownie
is on the side of the Germans. It is, however, shown as something that disrupts the tranquility of

everyday life and has many negative effects, represented by the enemy burning down a nearby
village and many people losing their homes. There are the images of red glare and smoke filling
the air and young, tired-looking men marching off to war. These are frightening types of images,
and because of these events, Brownies family is forced to leave by the threat of the enemy
coming to burn their farm down. So, they are made to leave their rightful home because of war.
Brownie, as a horse, does not really understand what is happening so he must ask an older war
horse what is going on. Brownie, along with the child, is learning what war means, both in a
physical and emotional sense, and this carries over through the rest of the story. When Brownie
is bought by the young soldier in the city, he must learn a new set of skills needed for the war,
just as he needed to learn skills for being a plow horse on the farm. His ability to listen to his
new master and learn these skills could mean life or death for him on the battlefield. There seems
to be some symbolism here, with Brownie representing the child and the solider representing a
childs parent or other adult authority figure, and making the point that children should listen to
adults for their own good, even if it is difficult or something they dont want to do. In this, we
see some of the top-down model, in that children need this external influence from adults in
order to learn how to behave appropriately in different situations. A horse, as an animal that
responds first to its instincts rather than to reason, like a child, requires this imposition from a
rational source to learn certain desirable behaviors.
There are other aspects of war presented by the text as well. There are the tearful
departures between soldiers and their loved ones, and this is the first place in the book which
hints at the idea of death. The text says, Some very sad partings between mothers and sons, and
sisters and brothers, who feared they should never see each other again (page 13). This is
implying that death will be the thing that keeps them from reuniting and this is one of the terrible

realities of war that the book seems to slowly be introducing to its child readers. This theme
continues as the war chapter goes on, talking about the terrible conditions the soldiers are forced
to suffer during a harsh winter. Before the war, all of the events either take place in the spring or
summer and everything is alive and green. However, now with the onset of the war, it has
become winter so everything is grey and cold and dead. There is nothing cheerful about it
whatsoever. Brownies hardships represent that of the troops in that he must live in a freezing
cold shack and barely has enough to eat. They are never safe from an attack by the enemy, and
so they must always be on their guard and in these passages, soldiers do actually die from the
cold and lack of food. So now death has become a physical occurrence in the story, rather than
merely this implied, abstract concept. There are further, far more disturbing images of death in
the battle scene with the description of thousands of men and Horses lay dead and dying on the
plain (page 14). Not only is graphic imagery used here, but it also brings forth the concept of
suffering as part of war as well as death and this occurs in physical and emotional ways.
Brownies rider is shot and killed in this scene and there is an example of emotional suffering
with the soldiers family mourning his loss. Death is not an uncommon theme in childrens
literature. In Tom Sawyer, there are the murders committed by the character, Injun Joe, but these
are not depicted as being honorable, yet they are still very central to the plot. In Alices
Adventures in Wonderland, Alice thinks about death when she worries that if she gets too small
from drinking the potion, she will simply be extinguished like candle. Animal stories, too, are
often filled with images of death, with the passing of the mare, Ginger, in Black Beauty and the
dog, Patrasche in A Dog of Flanders. This indicates that childrens literature does often address
the issue of death, and that it was considered something that children should be exposed to rather
than protected from, as is more the case today, at least with younger readers.

Another important theme in Adventures of a Horse is the idea that, while war does cause
devastating change and suffering, it is heroic to participate in it. Brownie, when he returns to the
farm after the fighting, is treated with a great deal of respect. He is also rewarded by having the
lightest workload and the most food to eat. So the message here seems to be that, even though
the war itself is a terrible thing, life after it will return to this idyllic state. In the book, Brownie
gets to go back to his peaceful life on the farm and live out the rest of his days in comfort. From
this, it would seem that the book is not at all anti-war, defining it as a sort of necessary evil,
something that is required in order to retain this beautiful peace that is represented in the first
chapter. This seems to then be encouraging children to view war as a positive thing and perhaps
even acting as a type of propaganda to future soldiers. War veterans and the other men involved
in the war are also portrayed as heroes in the story. Brownie suffers physically when he gets shot
in the leg and is permanently lamed so he walks with a slight limp. There are parallels between
this and the fact that war veterans were an aspect of society, and this was a way of showing
children that these men were not freaks, but rather heroes for serving their country. The soldiers
are also shown in a very positive light as young men who are bright, brave and eager for change,
even if it means dying out on the battlefield for their country.
Going off of these types of pro-war sentiments and Seth Lehrs chapter entitled From
Islands to Empires: Storytelling for a Boys World, it could be inferred that Adventures of a
Horse is a boys book meaning that it was written with young male readers in mind, rather like
Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island. Lehr describes a boys world as being about double
narratives of present-tense activity and physical description. And from these narratives emerge
the adventures of empire (page 171). This certainly describes the story of Brownie and his
adventures from the farm to the battlefield. The war is very present and at the forefront of the

action in the story. This is what really defines it as a boys book because war was considered
very much the domain of men at this time. If war was mentioned in a book targeted more for
girls, such as Little Women, it is far off in the background, happening, but not really present. All
of the named characters in the book are male as well, including Peter, the farmer, the wagoner
and the young solider. Brownie is also represented as male, possibly as a stallion, promoting the
male ideal as large, strong and brave, especially in battle. All of the professions shown in the
book such as the farmer, the blacksmith, and the solider were all typically male professions at
this time as well. There really are no women in the story except in the roles of mothers or sisters
mourning the loss of their men in war. So this story is clearly targeted to young boys who may
grow up to join the military. It promotes war as a good thing that is necessary for society to
function and portrays men who fight in these wars as brave heroes who will be rewarded and
respected for their bravery.
Adventures of a Horse seems, on the surface, to be nothing more than a little story about
a simple plow horse who lives a wonderful life on a farm and then is made into a brave war horse
before living happily ever after back in the countryside after the fighting is over. A wonderful
childrens story to be sure, but there is much more to it than that. It is a story that tries to really
engage the child from the illustrations to the intriguing story that goes from the beautiful
countryside to the battlefield in just a matter of pages. It is an adventure story, one that looks at
war through an honest lens, acknowledging its hardships while showing how it lifts society out
of the ashes into peace. It also heralds the efforts of the men whose bravery and sacrifice lead
ultimately to this final happy state of being. Children, particularly young boys, can relate to all of
this through the character of Brownie, because while he is just a simple farm horse, he
demonstrates throughout the story that even one who seems so powerless, as a child might feel in

their life, and that bravery has no minimum age or even species in this case. It comes from within
that individual, and this, above all, is a lesson that all children should learn, beginning with their
books.

Works Cited Page

1. Adventures of a Horse in Peace and War. London: Ward & Lock, 1857. Print.

2. Lerer, Seth. "From Islands to Empires: Storytelling for a Boy's World." Children's
Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter. Chicago: U of
Chicago, 2008. 171. Print.

Cover Sheet
Author:
Hazel Dehn

Title:
Analysis of Adventures of a Horse (1857)

Keywords:
Animal stories, war, Adventures of a Horse, childrens literature, horses

Abstract:
This essay examines an animal story about a horse named Brownie and his experiences in both
peace and war times in Eastern Germany during the 19th century. The story was published in
1857 as a stand-alone book for children, but does not provide an author. Through an analysis of
its illustrations, depictions of war and peace, parallels between child and animal as well as the
implicit messages about death, suffering, and valor, this essay strives to show that childrens
literature did acknowledge the child as a valuable element of society and as a future adult
member of it. It also shows that children were being exposed to more uplifting messages in their
literature through animal characters and that they were becoming the target audience for certain
types of propaganda, in this case, favor of war and serving in the military.

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