White Horse Influence

In William Saroyan’s short story, “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse,” Mourad is a positive influence on his younger cousin, Aram. One way Mourad is a positive influence is his care for animals. Aram takes his turn riding the horse; but he falls off, leading to the horse running off. As they search for the horse, Mourad says, “If you come upon him, be kindly,” (Saroyan 3). The horse is the one who ran off, but rather than be disciplinary, Mourad is gentle and careful. His compassion for animals is a good trait to have, one that could easily rub off on a certain cousin who is constantly hanging out with him. Mourad and Aram secretly return the horse to John Byro, but Mourad couldn’t leave without saying goodbye: “Mourad put his arms around the horse, pressed his nose into the horse’s nose, patted it, and then he went away,”(4). Mourad’s tenderness to the horse is result of a closeness from spending time with the horse. He cares for the horse now; he had even called it “My Heart”. Spending
Mourad is offering Aram a ride in a beautiful horse, a horse that he obviously did not buy because their family is extremely poor: “He had stolen the horse,”(1). If Mourad is going around stealing and exposing Aram to it, what’s to say Aram won’t start doing the same. Mourad is different from the rest of the family, more wild: “my cousin Mourad was considered the natural descendant of the crazy streak,”(2). Mourad is a wild card, his behavior is crazy, immoral, and unpredictable. He is a bad influence on Aram. The Garoghlaninan family has very high morals, they would never go against their values: “We were proud first, honest next, and after that we believed in right and wrong,”(1). Mourad may have been the wild streak of the family, but he’s still a Garoghlanian. He keeps his own values that he holds very high. He is teaching Aram about the other side of life, a side important to living