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Introduction
The story “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” of class 11 is written by the great
author ‘William Saroyan” The story revolves around two Armenian boys ‘Aram’ and ‘Murad’.
Aram is nine years old and he is the narrator of the story. While Murad was thirteen and was
Aram’s cousin. They belonged to the Garoghlanian tribe. This tribe was always recognized for
its honesty and trust. They had never done any stealing. But Aram and Murad stole a horse.
But they changed their mind and returned the horse.
Uncle Khosrove: Uncle khoserove was a big man with a loud voice. He was very impatient
and almost always angry. He never listened to people properly before he shouted "It is no
harm; pay no attention to it."
John Byro : He was a kind hearted farmer. He was Hardworking. He trusted the Boys as he
was sure that they are saying the truth because of their tribe (GALOGALION)
Summary
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse is a short story written by Armenian-American novelist
and playwright William Saroyan. The story entails a simple narrative of two poor Armenian boys who
are very fond of horses. And in spite of having strong moral ethics of honesty that make their whole
tribe distinct, these boys fulfil their wishes by riding a stolen white horse. The author narrates the
story in the first person, and the name of the narrator is Aram. He is tempted to try riding the horse by
his crazy cousin Mourad who steals the horse from a farmer named John Byro. They are bound to
their ethic of honesty and decide to return the horse as soon as Aram learns to ride the horse, just like
his cousin Mourad.
Key points
• The story opens with Mourad coming to Aram's house at four in the morning. He tapped
on the window to Aram's room. When Aram looked out of the window, he was taken aback
and startled to see Mourad riding a beautiful white horse.
• This was too unbelievable because Aram knew that they were too poor to be able to
afford to buy a horse.
• The only way Mourad could possess it could be by stealing. They were too honest to lie
and yet too crazy to ride a horse.
• Thus, they decided to keep the horse for two weeks to enjoy its ride in cool air. They
justified their action by saying that stealing a horse for money was not the same as stealing
it for riding.
• They hid it from the rest of the world by keeping it in a barn of the deserted vineyard.
• One day while returning from horse riding they came across John Byro, a farmer who was
the owner of that horse.
• John Byro was sure that it was his horse, yet, he did not suspect the boys.
• He even counted the horse’s teeth and was just amazed at the resemblance and said: “I
would swear it is my horse if I did not know your parents.”
• This moving experience led the boys towards John’s vineyard the very next morning. They
left the horse in the barn after patting it affectionately.
• Later that day, John seemed to be very pleased and shared the news of the return of his
horse with Aram’s mother.
END