“Animals deserve our kindness, sympathy and understanding,” that is what Anna Sewell－the author of Black Beauty－wanted to convince her readers. Thanks to Sewell, I now think about the animal－human relationship from both the human and the animal’s point of view.
     The inspiration for Anna Sewell’s novel was drawn from her own relationship with horses. Anna Sewell was born on March 20th, 1820 in Norfolk, England and was crippled while still very young. Due to her disability, she relied on horse-drawn carriages and grew to love horses as a result. She also became appalled by the careless and cruel treatment horses often received from humans and determined to write a book.. In the second year of work on the book, she was told that she had only eighteen months to live, but she persevered in order “to induce kindness, sympathy and an understanding [of the ] treatment of horses.” Five years later, she was still working on Black Beauty, her only book. Unfortunately, Sewell died a few months after publication and never learned of the book’s huge success. Black Beauty formed an impassioned plea for animal rights at a time when such a notion had been dismissed as ridiculous.
     The novel portrayed the real condition of working horses living in Britain during the Victorian Era. In that time period, the wealthy thought that their horses were treated well because they never stepped into the stable. In order to call people’s attention to horses’ hard life, Sewell tells the story through the first-person narrative voice of a horse. This innovative personification of an animal made the book a real success. Readers heard the stories straight from the horse’s mouth, literally, as an animal spoke of extremes of joy and suffering. People were shocked by the truth exposed by the novel and changed their attitudes towards animals.
     Sewell formed the novel with three kinds of characters: Black Beauty, Ginger and other farm animals. Through their different experiences, I saw similarly painful lives led by the animals. This method made the earnest appeal for animal rights become more and more persuasive.
     As a domestic animal, Black Beauty was continuously sold from one family to another. Over the years Beauty enjoyed good masters but also endured mean ones. Sometimes, he was cared for and at other times tortured. In the end, everything turns out all right in a story that is so tender and yet meaningful. His story was so vivid that caught the readers’ heart. The novel brought people laughter and tears and also enlightened them to understand animals at the same time.
     Animals cannot speak so understanding is significant to them. Once, for example, Beauty was drawing the carriage to a wooden bridge. The bridge was flooded out in the river and John, the groom, was not aware that it was cracked. But the quickly realized that something was wrong because of Beauty’s abnormal behavior. Momentarily, a man shouted to them, “Stop! Stop!…The bridge is broken in the middle. If you come across, you’ll fall in the river!” Beauty had saved John. However, if John had not tried to understand what Beauty wanted to tell him, there would definitely have been an accident. I learnt from the story that understanding animals is not only essential to them but is also beneficial to us ourselves.