Please answer one of the following questions for the story, "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse." Make your answer a comment to this post. Write between 125 and 175 words; provide your word count at the bottom of your paragraph(s). Please finish your work by 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21. If you have answered one of the questions before, you must choose a different one!
1. Write about an idea expressed in the writing (or in class) which you either agree or disagree with.
2. Explore a social or ethical issue raised in the story. Judge the behaviour of the characters or the views of the author. Are they right or wrong in your opinion?
3. Tell about how you feel toward this writing or its author and why.
4. Does this work confront or confirm your personal beliefs? Explain.
5. Describe your feelings as you read the story and what sort of experience you had.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
William Saroyan’s “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” confirms my personal beliefs. The narrator, Aram, claims that “Every family has a crazy streak in it somewhere.” I agree. If by crazy he means wild and passionate and eccentric, my family confirms it. Although some family are as conservative as they come, I also have a relative who believes in astral travelling (out of body experiences). Personally, I love the eccentric members more; my uncle, who spent the first 25 years of retirement skiing alpine powder snow, only giving it up in his 92 year, is truly a character. Aram also says that a man may only be a biological father to a son and not a “father of his spirit.” Having two children is ample proof of that. My children are both different from my wife and me, having a spirit uniquely their own. Saroyan gives us much to ponder about life in his deceptively simple story, “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse.” —164 words
1.Write about an idea expressed in the writing (or in class) which you either agree or disagree with.
I, in some kind, agree with the idea that is “stealing a horse for a ride was not the same thing as stealing something else”, “until we offered to sell the horse”. Why? When I finish reading the story, I am moved by Mourad, who really enjoys being alive and loves birds, dogs, horses, and other beautiful nature, as he always says he has a way with them. Mourad is full of vitality, so he makes me change my attitude towards “stealing”. Of course, stealing is stealing, but in Mourad’s situation, he only wants to ride the horse but not to own the horse. Besides, he makes the horse stronger and nicer-tempered that shows he takes care of the horse very well. The writing is not showing a stealing story but a horse-love boy who is poor but full of fantastic energy, so his behavior is forgivable. The world we are living is complicated; we sometimes have to make judgments in various ways.
(163 words)
Quoted from “The Summer of the Beautiful white Horse”, by William Saroyan
1-Write about an idea expressed in the writing (or in class) which you either agree or disagree with.
We all agree that stealing is a big sin, but sometimes it has some reasonable exceptions. The idea of “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” can be applied to the famous quote that says: “The ends justify the means”.
The purpose that makes Mourad, Aram’s cousin, steals the horse is just riding it. Aram agrees with Mourad in that point because they both know that their families can’t buy them such beautiful horse for they are poor “We are poor. We had no money”, said Aram, the narrator. Their aims are not bad because they like the horse a lot, take care of, and they have enjoyable time while they ride it. Since both of them belong to families that teach their children the meaning of mistakes as Aram says: “We believe in right and wrong.”, so they return the horse to its owner. That examples approve that they don’t do any crime.
The writer succeeds to convince his readers through presenting a child in the age of nine to narrate the story. This technique makes me agree with children’s innocent dreams for they are immature.
(173 words)
Quoted from “The Summer of The Beautiful Horse” by William Saroyan.
5. Describe your feelings as you read the story and what sort of experience you had.
I am amazed by the courage and ability of the two young boys stealing a horse, riding and taking care of it for six months. Mourad intention is to create pleasure and amusement and his cousin, Aram, wants to be part of his excitement. I actualized that their action was not because of bad habit of stealing which is punishable, but it was a struggle for their goals to make their dreams come true and achieve their desirable life. Mourad and Aram’s activities refreshed some of my childhood experience; in school, some of my friends and I went to a coffee shop to get something to drink. To show our bravery and to enjoy ourselves, we picked up something from the store furtively and came back to school. However, it was a shameful entertainment, but our concern was to change our tiring moment to a laughing and rejoicing time. Saroyan describes life as an opportunity and a choice of making a bright day light or a nightmare, but “pay no attention to it.”
173 words
Quoted from “The Summed of the Beautiful White Horse”, by William Saroyan
1.Write about an idea expressed in the writing (or in class) which you either agree or disagree with.
Who may accept the statement, “stealing a horse for a ride is not the same thing as stealing something else”, which is argued by a young boy whose cousin has stolen a neighbor’s horse, in William Saroyan’s short story, “The Summer of the Beautiful while Horse”? Not me, at least, but I understand why the boy says that. In his opinion, stealing means occupying others possession like stealing a horse, but stealing for a ride is not such serious, and his cousin will return it, regarding as borrowing a horse. In fact, this thought is absolutely wrong. Stealing and borrowing are very different concepts altogether. Borrowing is that you need to ask the other person before taking any of their belongings, but stealing is taking objects without asking and being permitted. The boy’s cousin rides a horse getting from his neighbor without asking, so this behavior is not borrowing, but stealing. Clarifying the difference between stealing and borrowing is very important, or people will get in trouble.
--167 words
2. Explore a social or ethical issue raised in the story. Judge the behaviour of the characters or the views of the author. Are they right or wrong in your opinion?
The main character, a nine-year old boy, and his thirteen-year old cousin Mourad were trying to pursue their dreams when “the world was full of every imaginable kind of magnificence”.
Apparently, the whole story argued about whether borrowing the horse without permission from the farmer was stealing; deep down, the author presented us with two Armenian young boys who longed to ride a beautiful white horse and “enjoyed being alive”, but the poverty of Garoghlanian family would never make their dream come true.
Is poverty going to kill the beautiful dream of two young boys? My answer is NO. I guess there was not any “make your dream come true” kind of charity organization at that time. Eventually, in order to the preserve the reputation of being honest in Garophlanian family, they had to give themselves an excuse that it wasn’t stealing as long as the horse would be returned.
150 words
Question: Tell about how you feel toward this writing or its author and why.
I found much to enjoy in the story “The summer of the Beautiful Horse” because of its characters and plot. At first, I like the characters in this story Mourad and “my uncle Khosrove” who have different vivid features but both have “a gentle heart”. It makes me laugh that “my uncle Khosrove” is still roaring “it is no harm, pay no attention to it” while his house is on fire; and it makes me smile that capricious Mourad is “trying to repair the hurt wing of a young robin”. In addition, I enjoy the lovely plot of this story. For instance, “my cousin Mourad” steals the horse but returns it; the horse’ owner finds our horse is “tooth for tooth” the same as his, but he still don’t take any action due to the fame of our family’s honesty; and at the end of the writing the horse’ owner thinks his horse is stronger and better-tempered than before. I believe that vivid characters and a fresh plot will make writing more interesting and attractive.
--175words
1. Write about an idea expressed in the writing (or in class) which you either agree or disagree with.
In our class discussions about “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse”, I half percent agree and half percent disagreed with some of the discussions. First, “would you let yourself starve to death instead of stealing from a rich man?” our teacher asked and most of the students’ answers were “no” to that. However, I agree in such case and would only steal from a rich man if he was stingy. For example, when I was nine or ten years old, my childhood friends and I would dress in black clothes and go steal from a guava tree because the owner was tightfisted. Furthermore, what if the rich man was generous and gave you a share of his wealth, would you still go steal from him? I waited eagerly for this question in class, but it did not come. Well, in this case, I disagree because that would be greediness and would be unfair to the rich man.
158 words
1. Write about an idea expressed in the writing (or in class) which you either agree or disagree with.
In William Saroyan’s story, the boys think that “stealing a horse for a ride is not same as stealing something else”. Totally, I can not accept this point. Maybe someone will say that they just borrowed the horse and finally they returned it to the owner. But I think this is not borrowing even they returned it because they didn’t get the permission from owner. And everything has its certain value during a period. Let’s come back to the story, if the boys want to rent a horse for a ride for more than one month, they should pay some money, but actually they didn’t. On the other hand, the owner may not only lose some chance to make some money through the horse but also pay some extra money. In fact, the boys steal the value of the horse in this period from the owner. In my opinion, the boys were just looking for some excuse for their behavior which brought fun to themselves and brought trouble to the poor owner.
-172 words
Explore a social or ethical issue raised in the story. Judge the behaviour of the characters or the views of the author. Are they right or wrong in your opinion.
The story “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse”, talks about the social issue regarding family status quo of honesty. Perhaps, We knew typical families like the Garoghlanian who…”were proud first, honest next “…I do, I belonged in a poor family who believed and valued honesty, which shaped me into unique and strong personality.
Actually, “No member of the Garoghlanian family could be a thief” I suspected both Aram and Mourad knew what they did were stealing, due to the innocent longing of riding a horse they forgotten family values unintentionally. Since, they caused the farmer to be lonely. But On the other hand, “out his loneliness had learned to speak Armenian”… it is a blessing in disguised.
In the story, the author presented the characters are lucky because their family known for “being honest”, what if they don’t. Maybe they will be in a big trouble.
I admire John Byros’ kindness and humility to forgive the innocent kids. The story strengthened my heart by being gentle and forgiving. I loved it.
(172 words)Quoted from “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse by William Saroyan
5)
As a half Assyrian person, I enjoyed reading “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse”. Look at this gorgeous sentence: “Every family has a crazy streak in it somewhere,” I love that strong expression because of its simplicity and honesty. He explains truly: “We were proud first, honest next, and after that we believed in right and wrong.” My spirit shined because of that touchable description which is a simple truth that I lived with everyday of my life.
“In the good old days”, Living in the present time and enjoying of being together (farming, chatting, dancing, drinking, eating, and worshiping God) were their main activities. Relationship was very simple and strong as Saroyan shows us in all his characters. “Trespassing” has no meaning among them. I am sure neither Mourad nor Aram even tend or mean to hurt John Byro. Nothing could belong to human forever as they have their experiences of losing everything especially the land: “stealing a horse for a ride was not the same thing as stealing something else, such as money.”
177 words
Question 2, Explore a social or ethical issue raised in the story. Judge the behaviour of the characters or the views of the author. Are they right or wrong in your opinion?
Most of people will agree with that honesty is an important part of ethic, but in some situation, people will give themselves excuse, like author said “We were proud first, honest next, and after that we believed in right and wrong.”
The two boys in the story did not damaged the horse, they hid the horse and practiced riding. At first author thought it is stealing, after his cousin entice him to ride the horse, he compromised, and could not conquer his desire. Although he knew that is still a bad thing to do, he enjoyed.
In my opinion, twelve, thirteen-years-old boys are big enough to have responsibility for what they have done. Author should have told his cousin to return the horse, and not to be part of the stealing. I think they are wrong.
-138 words-
After reading the story "The Summer of the Beuatiful White House" by the author William Saroyan, I felt that the characters have unsophisticated minds. Most people with ordinary lives do not consider to return to their owner contrary to the people in the story. However, This does not mean that they do right behaviors, because borrowing something without a permission is same as stealing in my personal view. In the story, Aram said "stealing a horse for a ride was not the same thing as stealing aomething else, such as money.", whether the thing is valuable or not, taking out things in others' possession without a permision comes to the same way: a steal. Although Aram did not take the horse in purpose, this can be regarded as a steal. As Aram and cousin Mourad felt a sting of conscience, they returned it back, however this was the case of stealing in my own judgement. After reading this story, I felt that each one of us has to have a right and moral way of thinking in the society; Every each one of people have the responsibility that makes the society more developed and peaceful.
--188 words
Describe your feelings as you read the story and what sort of experience you had.
The idea of “Live while you live, then die and be done with it!” struck me hard. This attitude is just the opposite of what I have experienced in most of the old people. They tried to pamper their bodies to the maximum joy of rest. My grandmother was only willing to go out eating in the restaurant, which caused minimum burden on her body. One summer, I insisted to take her to the beach; she found herself a seat underneath the tree and refused to go anywhere near the water. After half hour, she insisted to go back home; it seemed like watching TV and eating snack could be the only thing she wanted for her life.
The motivation of your life outlived the physical condition of the body. Professor Mallory’s great grandfather was told by the doctor that his health is going downhill really fast; however, the passion of life kept him alive. “If ye just about half-live, ye just the same as half-die”
166 words
Post a Comment