black beauty 3

And so the puns continue...

In part 3, Black Beauty is sold to Jerry and appropriately renamed Jack. I can think of at least 2 reasons the name is fitting for the artist formerly known as Black Beauty. Up to this point, Black Beauty has been tried in 2 parks, as a job horse, and now as a cab horse, all at which he excelled. And so naturally, our first pun emerges making Black Beauty a "Jack of all trades." The second part of the figure of speech, "master of none", is yet another pun. This one is rather easy though, as its obvious that Black Beauty could not possibly be a master of anyone or anything, as he is definitely the servant in every case.

Men mastering control of a horse [1]

The second layer of the pun lies in economics. As I recall from basic history, trading became possible through specialization, which eventually blossomed into capitalism. Economically, if you were the only or the best person at a skill, you could charge more because supply of that skill would be low, and demand would be high. For a Jack of all trades that is a master of none, Jack is left in the middle as the working class, doing the same labor for cheaper pay. So the kicker is that when Black Beauty adopts his new name from his working class owner Jerry, he is also adopting Jerry's social class. The life of some of these horses is difficult with having to deal with inconsiderate customers and negligent drivers. But for all, the horses and their drivers face long and hard days in harsh working conditions. For those drivers that own their horses, they had the opportunity to work less. But for those that did not own their horses, they had to work even harder and faster to make ends meet, often at the expense of their rented horses. Jack shows the differences within the working class when he says, "I should say that for a cab horse, I was very well of indeed; my driver was my owner, and it was his interest to treat me well, and not overwork me" (165) while pointing out that other horses weren't so lucky. Seedy Sam is a prime example of how hard it can be when his dying words are "I never had a Sunday's rest" (168).

Working class horse and human [2]

Treating injured animals at the rodeo [2.5]

Though Jerry and Jack share the same well-off working class and similar, admirable traits, they differ in the simple fact that one is human and the other is an animal. It's sad and unfair that when Black Beauty has knee problems caused by injuries from man, he loses prestige, dignity and a better quality of life for several years. But when Jerry is permanently injured from sickness caused by man, he finds himself in a circumstance that his daughter describes as "there never was anything so beautiful" (193). In a new home in the country and an easier job, Jerry now finds himself in a wonderful life with his family. Jack did not find the same happiness in retirement immediately, but instead admits, "This was heavy news for me, for I was not young now and could not look for any improvement in my condition" (193). Fortunately, because this story has a happy ending, the parallels of Jerry and Jack stay true when Black Beauty finally finds peace on the countryside with good owners.

Joe Green waiting for Black Beauty [3]

On a side note, I thought it would be fun to look at other reasons Jack is an appropriate name for Black Beauty by looking at famous Jacks.

Injured doing manual labor [4]

Jack from Titanic faced ridicule for being in the working class [5]

This screams blue-collar [6]

Used by man to lift heavy objects [7]

Captain Jack Sparrow faced terrible work conditions [8]



Does the dirty work [9]


Doesn't get tougher than that [10]

[1] http://www.lifeafterracing.co.uk/images/stinky%20and%20mads.jpg
[2] http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/chg/content/images/2007_4800.JPG
[2.5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQkY_EywcrE
[3] http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/field-of-dreams-DVDcover.jpg
[4] http://www.thevirtualvine.com/images/nurseryrhymes/jackandjill/pgheader2a.gif
[5] http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/titanic_still.jpg
[6] http://www.clipartheaven.com/clipart/construction/jackhammer.gif
[7] http://www.rudeart.us/images/carjack1.jpg
[8] http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/05_02/pirateDM2505_468x456.jpg
[9] http://ra-ajax.org/media/UserImages/ajax.jpg
[10] http://almatos.no.sapo.pt/stories/jackbeanstalk/imagens/jack_beanstalk_a.jpg