A Man Called Horse by Dorothy M. Johnson

Author Dorothy M. Johnson was born in Dec.19, 1905 in the state of Iowa. Unfortunately she passed away in Nov 11, 1984 in Montana at age 78. She wrote short stories like : The Hanging Tree, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and also The Man called horse.

Main Characters Horse who is from Boston and is a white guy. Petty Calf is the love Interest Indian girl daughter of Greasy Hand Yellow Robe the capturer son of Greasy Hand Greasy Hand is the mom of petty calf and Yellow Robe.

Plot Is about a Boston aristocrat born in Boston he's a good man from a wealthy family and raised by his grandmother he was spoiled his mother has passed away giving birth to him. He has an internal conflict within himself he feels discomfort and feels he doesn’t fit in he is unhappy. He ventures off to the west countries frontier towards Indian Country with the misconception that all white men are leaders and kings among the Indians, But eventually he gets captured and everything goes south.

Setting The setting takes place at an Indian camp

Conflict In the story horse has an internal conflict he feels bitter uncomfortable and doesn't fit in and when he ventured off to the frontier thinking that white men are kings and leaders among Indians he gets captured and gets enslaved and is treated like a horse. He does not understand their language nor cant he communicate with their language.

Climax He then one day learns their language he starts to communicate and he is trusted by the tribe when he is hunting with them he kills a tribal rival leader then he gains more respect within his tribe and then he is allowed to marry Petty Calf. Then Petty Calf is pregnant with his child.

Conclusion In conclusion yellow robe dies in battle against a rival tribe. Petty Calf dies at child birth his son little freedom is a still born and is dead at birth. As a result of the death of Petty Calf in their tribe horse is a free man when his wife dies because greasy hand already has lost his son and daughter she would have no one to hunt or take care of her she would have to ask horse to stay and provide for her by calling him son and horse responding to her by saying mother. So he agrees because he figures that she wont live long he ends up going home 3 years later he now can say "I live with the crows tribe for a while it was sometime before I could leave they called me horse". He did not find it necessary to apologize or to boast because he was the equal of any man on earth.