Black Beauty discussion:
"I found myself surrounded by many men, many houses, and loud noises. Suddenly, my master fell from on top of me. I was full with fear. So many things were going on around me. I was full with fear because I had no idea what was going on. I had no direction and this was not the place to just sit here in place. Horses and their masters were screaming and yelling to the left and right of me. Suddenly, I had men begin to hit me with these sharp and piercing objects and my companion horse that stood next to me had dropped to the ground. His rider then with no hesitation hopped on my back and suddenly, I was galloping again. Instantly after, other horses and their masters were running towards me with no fear. I found it hard to keep focus. Where was my master?"
I participated in this exercise as well, with this passage, and I found that stripping it of human qualities and ideas placed much more emphasis on the horses' emotions. With the inclusion and mention of humans, the horses and their feelings seemed secondary, almost like an afterthought. Once we removed human concepts like guns, soldiers and war, and replaced them with non human inclusive descriptions the confusion, stress and bewilderment of the horses became much more prominent.
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