The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans English Literature Essay

a) It’s a very modern story. The time it takes place is not mentioned in the story, but the people have very modern software and stuff, so I guess it’s in this time, because a couple of years ago they didn’t had a laptop, while in this story they have one.

b) the story takes about a year. It stats when the children have that accident and it ends when Tom died.

c) The story takes place around New York where Grace lives and in Montana, where the horse whisperer lives.

3. Plot

Grace has an accident; she gets hit by a truck while riding her horse. Grace’s leg is very badly injured and her horse Pilgrim has a bad trauma. Her mother reads about horse whisperers and they decide to go there and see if he can make Pilgrim better. He makes Pilgrim better and Grace’s mother and the horse whisperer fall in love. When Grace hears this she goes for a long ride with Pilgrim and when she’s in the mountains Pilgrim and another stallion get in a fight. Tom and his brother go looking for her and they try to get Pilgrim away from the other horse, then Tom gets hit by the other horse and dies. Grace and her mother go home to her father/husband and her mother get divorced. Later the mother get’s a baby.

4. Characters

a)Main characters:

* Grace : she’s the 13-year-old girl who has the accident. She blames herself for the accident and have troubles to deal with it. She get’s very quiet of it, and ignore’s her mother at the beginning of the story. At the end she can talk a lot better with her mother and the contact is better.

* Pilgrim (grace’s horse): The story is particularly based on him. In the beginning it’s a normal horse, but it gets damaged in the accident and acts weard after this. The horse whisperer tries to make him normal again.

* Tom Booker: the horse whisperer. He’s a quiet and nice person. He falls in love with Annie, but at first he doesn’t give in, becuase she’s married. He’s very patient with people and animals.

* Annie (grace’s mother): Grace’s mother, she feels guilty because after Grace she couldn’t have children any more. She got four miscarriages and she blamed herself for this. After Grace’s accident she tries to make her happy again. She spend lots of time in it and even decide to keep Pilgrim and make him better, even though Crace don’t want this.

b) * Robert (Annie’s husband, grace’s father) : When Grace and Annie leave he stays in New York to work as a lawyer. He and Grace are very close.

* Frank: Toms brother. He’s a nice person and looks out for Grace at times.

* Judith: she’s Grace’s friend who is there with the accident, but she dies.

5. Theme

the theme is about not giving up. The people in the story has got a hard time, but they keep on fighting to become happy again. It’s also about doing thinks because you love people. In the story the do a lot of thinks to make the other person happy. They woul do everything to see them smile again.

B: Your opinion

1. Which character(s) did you like?

Annie, Grace’s mother I like the most. It’s very difficult for her when her only child gets a accident and she tries everything to make her child happy again, allthough Grace don’t make it easy for her. She an be very annoying and irritating, but Annie don’t give up. Annie tries to be strong for her doughter.

2. Wich character did you dislike?

I think I dislike Grace the most. I know she has lots of trouble dealing wit the accident, but her mother wants to make her happy and does a lot of thinks for her, but Grace acts like she can’t appreciate this and does very annoying to her mother. She makes it difficult for her mother to help her, so she makes herself only more unhappy. I understand whye she does this, but I don’t agree with it. It’s also mostly her fault that Tom gets killed.

3. What did you feel when you read the story?

You don’t get a happy feeling when you read this story. The accidents make you sad and you really sympathise with the players. It’s a very sad story.

4. What is your favourite part?

I guess the end of the story I liked the most. This because of the beginning you know there will be a death on the end, and at the end you finnaly read it. Also you know how the story ends, and thats mostly the only thing whye I stay reading. The end wasn’t happy, but I was glad when I had finished the book, because I kept in tension about who should die.

5. What do you think about the theme?

The story is based on a true story, so it’s not really one theme where it’s based on. I don’t like horses, so that was not whye I read it, but I think this story also has got a message and that came out good. He just want to show the reader that when you really want to help people and make them happy it can work, allthough you have to do a lot for it.

6. Question to the writer:

I want to know why they let Tom die at the end of the story?

In the beginning it’s a unhappy story, but in the middle it looks like everything wil turn out right, but then Grace’s mother cheats on her man and at the end Tom dies. I wish the story could end different.