The Black Stallion and the Red Mare

At some point in life you almost always come across a decision that seems impossible to make. One option is what you desire most but, is disobeying something you were told at one point in your life. The other option is to do as you were told even though it will tear you apart on the inside. That is the decision that has to be made by Donald in the short story “The Black Stallion and the Red Mare”.

In this short story the main character is a boy becoming a young man named Donald. Donald is the kind person who does what he is told when he is told. This can be an advantage at times but it can also be torture. He also has a love for things that are free and wild. During this story those two characteristics clash and fight against each other when his father tells him to help him round up a group of wild horses. His natural action to do what he is told would crush the freedom of the wild horses which seems unbearable to him. Eventually, he decides to do as he is told and remains loyal to his decision and his father by helping him round up the horses after revealing their location to his father.

Although Donald chose to destroy the freedom of the horses, he simply could have lied to his father and say he never saw the horses. If Donald did this, the thought of the freedom of the group being crushed wouldn’t haunt him at night and he would never regret anything besides lying to his father which would be a whole different predicament. Another setback he might encounter is his father may ask him to keep searching for the horses and he would have to keep lying to his father and, once again, tear him apart on the inside.

Many decisions can be nearly imposable to make because of the seemingly endless amount of decisions where each outcome seems more horrid than the last. Donald’s decision to tell the truth to his father seems to be the right decision to me due to the fact that telling the truth is always better than lying because all lying does is tear you apart on the inside.