War Horse Joey Quotes

Chapter One: Mental and Long-Term Strength “We have shown them that any problem can be solved between people if only they can trust each other.”

While reading this book, you will notice how many characters Joey comes across- and how different they are. In War Horse, we can see numerous people who play a role the development of Joey’s character. These characters are Zoey, who gave Joey courage, Samuel Perkins, who made Joey more persevering , and Albert who gave Joey a motivation to live. These characters had a massive influence on Joey and made him into the admirable character he is now. They provided him with skills that lasted him a lifetime- and kept him alive.

One of the first characters Joey meets is Zoey, the old farm horse that

He is a very similar character to Zoey, however he is more of a faithful friend rather than a mother. Albert gives Joey the motivation to survive and even try to get through the war. Joey said: In the darkest days of my illness, when I felt sure each day might be my last, only Alberts constant presence kept alive in me the will to live. His devotion, his unwavering faith that I would indeed recover, gave me the heart to go on. (Morpurgo, 1982, p. 57).

If this is not the perfect quote, it goes to show exactly what gave Joey the will to live. Without a will to live, surviving is very hard. Look what happened to Emilie? After both her parents died and Joey and Topthorn left, she had nothing left and ‘faded away and died’ (Morpurgo, 1982, p. 66). This did not happen to Joey because he had something to live for. Also, while the training was going on, back home was all Joey thought about. He reminisced about the long days in the fields with the light bits and fresh grass that was used, rather than the harsh days in the battle field. He says his only want is to get back home to those pleasure filled days. Again, we can see his motivation. (Morpurgo, 1982, p. 32) If he keeps on pushing through and surviving, he was able to go back to the fields. In conclusion, we can see that Albert also helped Joey to develop into the character he

Even though Topthorn did end up dying, he was enough to keep Joey alive until the end. You can see this when Joey said, “My only comfort came from Topthorn.” (Morpurgo, 1982, p. 21). Whether it was physical or mental comfort, it doesn’t matter- we can just see that Topthorn helped. Can you imagine what would have happened to Joey without him? In the moment, it kept him alive. You can also see this when Topthorn helped Joey to pull the guns even when he himself was struggling a lot. (Morpurgo, 1982, p. 45). Joey watched Topthorn struggle to keep pulling his guns so it was not so hard for Joey even though he was struggling to breathe himself. He sacrificed his own life for Joey. If he had started giving up, without the other two horses they had lost and himself, Joey wouldn’t have been able to keep going. Instead, Topthorn let himself die for Joey.

As you can see, there were many characters that sacrificed their own time and sometimes even their lives to help Joey. From Trooper Warren that helped Joey through the roughest days, to Emilie who helped Joey to recover and have enough strength for the next battle, or Topthorn that kept pushing so Joey didn’t have to, these are just three characters that provided Joey comfort in the harsh war. There help was just short-term and was more physical care rather than mental, their actions were just as important,