Well, I could be doing some actual schoolwork at this point in time but instead I strongly felt the need to share with you one of my favourite books.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I’m away from home and it’s a Canadian author. Or perhaps it’s because I’m missing my own dogs. But for whatever the reason I’ve started to read one of my favourite childhood books over again.
Now I’ve read this one many times as a child/teen/young adult (whatever the PC terms may be). But until today I haven’t yet read it as an adult. Funny that.
The book is called Beautiful Joe. Written in 1893 by a Canadian woman (yes woman) author. Margaret Marshall Saunders (better known as Marshall Saunders) wrote this story of a medium sized ‘cur’ that not only contributed to a worldwide awareness of animal cruelty but my own.
Beautiful Joe was a real dog. A medium sized terrier cross dog, he was often times described as a mongrel, cur or mutt. Originally, Joe had been owned by a Meaford man. This man greatly abused him, starving him and cutting off his ears and tail. At one point after being nearly beaten to death in 1809, Joe was rescued by a relative of Marshall Saunders. Saunders met Joe not too long after on a visit to her brother and was apparently so touched by his story that she wrote a novel. Joe’s fictionalized autobiography. The book was submitted to a literary contest sponsored by the American Humane Education Society and went on to win. By the 1900’s over 800 000 copies had been sold in the United States, 40 000 in Canada and 100 000 in the United Kingdom. Today he is honoured with a statue and park dedicated to his name in Meaford, Ontario. A society, The Beautiful Joe Heritage Society in Meaford, has been established in his name not only to ensure that this part of our cultural heritage lives on but to ensure the continued awareness of animal cruelty and the humane treatment of animals. I’m certain that both Saunders and Joe would be proud.
In the story, Joe after his rescue goes to live with the Morris family. From his experience with both the people in his new family and the animals he shares his life with he gives the reader a good overview of how animals were treated in the late 1800’s, both good and bad. Through Joe’s eyes we see good people and bad, we see ignorance and enlightenment and ultimately we gain a respect for other lives and creatures… no matter how great or small.
I love this story, not only because it was told from Joe’s own viewpoint, but because it greatly humanized the idea of animal cruelty. Somehow, Saunders managed to write from the viewpoint of an animal without fully anthropomorphizing it. Joe does “speak” to the reader, but still seems to be very much a dog.
Now when I read the story, I am struck by many things that I would not have been aware of as a child. The story is set in the late 1800’s which does account for many instances of what would be appreciated as cruelty today, yet would have been the standard then. Yet at the same time, I am blown away by just how much it does to bring forward the notion of animal cruelty and it’s condemnation without seeming preachy. (Which is funny considering that the father of the Morris family in the story happens to be a pastor). You can’t avoid comparison with Anna Sewell and Black Beauty. The author herself makes reference to it early in the novel as Joe describes his mistress “laughing and crying over a little book that she says is a story of a horse’s life”. Yet this is a different story with again a different though similarly powerful impact. Saunders has not only managed to discuss animal cruelty in terms that made it easy to understand, but also in a way that opened my eyes to the fact that cruelty does not always stem from brute barbarity but also from ignorance.
I have to say that even when reading it as an adult, though I am now aware of some of it’s faults, I still love this book. And in hindsight I now begin to wonder if having read it as a child managed to change not only the way I look at the world and the species we share the planet with, but also how I look at human society and the idea of cruelty. I do think that cruelty is not just a byproduct of an “evil” person but is a symptom of greater problems in society. It’s a byproduct of ignorance and of cultural standards usually developed out of poverty and more ignorance. I do think that there can be some people out there who are just plain cruel, but at the same time I think that most can be redeemed. That if they could be brought to understand what they are doing and its actual effect on other living beings (human, feathered and four legged) the world would be a better place overall. A bit of ‘head in the clouds’ idealism there? Yes, possibly but I feel that it is always better to think something good of a situation or of a person than to believe otherwise.
I think Joe himself would agree.
