On Features Of Animal Narration In War Horse And Its Significance

Published in1982, War Horse is a well-known work by the English writerMichael Morpurgo. It is a typical children’s work of animal narration.Since its publication, War Horse has been adapted as a radio broadcast and as astage play, and is popular in Britain. But after the releasing of the film War Horse, itattracts the attention of some scholars. The focus is mostly on the aspect of televisionentertainment, like the anti-war theme, etc. Till now, no systematic study in animalnarration of this book can be found. This paper attempts to further explore the featuresof children’ s work of animal narration in War Horse through a careful study andprovides a systematic elaboration so as to bring a new perspective on theinterpretation of this novel and enhance the study of it.This paper contains five parts.Introduction is a brief introduction to the author and the novel as well as ageneral summary of the current research at home and abroad, and a brief introductionto animal narration.The main body can be divided into three chapters.Chapter One will deal with the features of animal narration in children’sliterature and provide further elaboration on the narrator and point of view andlanguage in children’ s literature.Chapter Two will deal with the features from three aspects, including internalfocalization and horse’ s perspective and language. In each section focusing on therespective aspects there will be a detailed analysis of the features with examples fromthe novel.Chapter Three explores the significance of animal narration in WarHorse---revealing the anti-war theme. Joey’ s war experience and war scenes in Joey’s eyes and humanity in Joey’s eyes will be elaborated separately in detail.In Conclusion, features of animal narration in War Horse and its significance willbe summarized. And the significance of interpreting this piece of work from the angleof animal narration will be emphasized.