The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse Summary: The story “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” is written by William Saroyan. The short story is a part of the book, “Snapshots” which is included in the syllabus of Class 11 English as per the National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT and the Central Board of Secondary Education CBSE. The students who have to appear for the exam need to prepare the story extremely well as the questions will be asked within the events and happenings in the story.
For the preparation, a summary will be extremely helpful. The students can check all the details pertaining to the short story in a brief The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse Summary format. It shall help them to understand the events at different instances and remember the chronology of the events that occur in the story.
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The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse Summary
The story, “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” was written by William Saroyan and is a part of his collection, “My Name is Aram“. The story is a narration of a nine-year-old boy Aram who is Armenian and a part of the Garoghlanian tribe. They are located in the orchards and vineyards of the San Joaquin Valley in California. The tribe is recognised for its honesty and faithfulness. He has a cousin named Mourad who is thirteen years old. Everyone around believes that Mourad is demented while Aram does not agree with this perspective. The former is very good with animals and understands them well. He was believed to be like his uncle, Khosrove. Morad was a maniac like his uncle even though his own father, Zorab was extremely balanced.
Khosrove was huge and extremely annoying. He had zero patience and would roam irritated every now and then. He would suddenly start shouting urging everyone to stop speaking. These were some of the crazy attributes of the man. When questioned, he always replied, “It is no harm” to anything and every situation that stands before him. This was noted to such an extreme that once his own son informed regarding a fire at their house, he straightforwardly replied, “Enough, it is no harm”.
One morning, Mourad disturbs Aram at four. As the latter gets up, he sees Mourad riding a beautiful horse which is white in colour. He always has had the desire to ride a horse but unfortunately, the family is not financially stable to support this dream of Aram. There are many questions that arise in his head but he discards the thought that Mourad might have stolen the horse since honesty prevails in the tribe. Mourad invited him to ride the horse which he does not deny analysing that the horse will not be considered stolen if it is sold. The two ride the horse for a while taking it for strides for a few hours.
It is soon that Mourad expresses his wish to rise the house alone but Aram wanted to do the same for himself as well. In order to ride, Aram kicked the horse extremely dropping himself off the horse causing it to go away alone leaving them behind. The horse was found half an hour later in this incident. The two kids decided to hide the horse in the barn of the deserted vineyard of Fetvajian who was a farmer. He was extremely proud of his barn and vineyards.
The same afternoon, Aram’s house witnessed an Assyrian farmer, John Byro coming and complaining to Aram’s mother regarding the white horse that he reported as stolen. He declared that the horse was missing for a month.l Hearing this, Aram was shocked and analysed that Mourad must have owned the horse for a very long time.
Seeing Byro at Aram’s house, Khosrove who too was there, started calling out, “It is no harm”. Byro got agitated and had to leave after seeing this behaviour from him. Aram straightaway went to see Mourad so as to inform him regarding the arrival of Byro. he requested he not return the horse as he was not able to learn how to ride it. Mourad expresses his disagreement with this thought as he tried to make Aram understand that it will take him a year to learn if the minimum time is taken into consideration. He declared that the horse will be with him for six months and promises this to Aram.
Mourad started teaching Aram how to ride the horse and came to pick him up. This soon became a perpetual routine. Despite the efforts, Aram was unable to learn as he would fall off the back every time. After two weeks, when the two were returning to hide the horse to Fetvajian’s bard, they met Byro. He could not believe that the boys stole the horse. They returned the horse to him without arguing. Later, Byro visited Aram’s house to declare that his horse was stolen and is now found. He explains how the horse has become spoilt and does not obey anymore.
