The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

Aram, a nine-year-old boy, is the protagonist of the story, and the story is told from his point of view. Although he narrates as an older version of himself, looking back on the story of the white horse (“One day back there in the good old days when I was nine” [1]), his narrative maintains the wide-eyed perspective of a child: “[T]he world was full of every imaginable kind of magnificence, and life was still a delightful and mysterious dream” (1). Aram is open to the magic of the natural world, the sudden appearance of the beautiful white horse, and the escapades of his “crazy” cousin Mourad. He experiences a youthful joy in the illicit early morning rides in the countryside near his home: “The air was new and lovely to breathe. The feel of the horse running was wonderful” (4). Aram, because of his youth, is also prone to speaking in hyperbole. According to Aram, his family is the most poverty-stricken family as well as the most honest “ever.” Aram also recalls that they had been the wealthiest family in what they “liked to think was the world” (2).