Summary
At the beginning of Chapter 18, Joey notes the attentive care that he received from two of Albert's superiors in the veterinary hospital, Major Martin and a sergeant nicknamed "Old Thunder." However, Joey is soon beset by illness. Albert notices one day that Joey is experiencing a painful sensation; uncertain how to diagnose the horse himself, he goes to find Major Martin. The officer discerns that the stiffened, weakened Joey has tetanus, and regretfully informs Albert that there is little that can be done. Joey seems bound for death.
Albert is heartbroken upon hearing this news, but David speaks up, reminding Major Martin of earlier advice. Major Martin himself had informed the troops of the necessity of horses to the war effort and had urged his men never to lose hope in caring for these animals. Together, David and Joey resolve to care for Joey; their plan is met with approval from Sergeant Thunder and Major Martin. All of the troops take an interest in Joey's fate. The horse gradually regains his strength and overcomes the paralysis and loss of appetite that are symptoms of his tetanus. One spring day, Albert is even able to lead Joey out into the paved yard of the regiment's quarters, demonstrating the horse's recovery.
Joey's recovery is almost complete, as described in the opening pages of Chapter 19. The rejuvenated horse is assigned Albert as his constant caretaker; once Joey's strength is restored, he is sent on trips to the front, pulling an ambulance cart once more. Albert also talks to Joey; the horse learns that Albert has a sweetheart: a girl named Maisie Brown who bakes wonderful bread in his home village. But alas, this period of contentment does not last. One day, David is killed by a stray shell during one of his own trips to the war zone. Albert is understandably distraught, but he still talks to Joey, explaining that David had worked a fruit cart in London and seemed to have his entire life left to live.
The war then comes to a sudden end. Albert is eager to get home, but the regiment must still figure out what to do with the horses. Major Martin is one of the few who knows the fate of these animals, which he announces during the soldiers' morning parade maneuver. Instead of taking the horses back to England, the regiment will need to auction them off—mostly to butchers. The men are distraught yet helpless in the face of these circumstances. When Albert asks Major Martin if Joey will be auctioned off, the Major turns remorsefully away, indicating by his silence that Joey will meet the same circumstances as the other horses.
Chapter 20 opens on a note of anxiety for the regiment and for the horses, which are instinctively nervous. However, by the evening, Sergeant Thunder and some of the other soldiers have resolved to take up a collection to save Joey, in the hope that they will be able to pool enough money to buy the horse at auction. The day of the auction itself then arrives. One by one, the horses are sent off to the winning bidders until Joey is the last one left. He is led out to the parade grounds used by the regiment, and the bidding begins. Competition over Joey is intense; the main bidders are Sergeant Thunder and an unpleasant butcher from Cambrai. The price for Joey reaches 27 pounds—a price that the regiment cannot afford—and it seems that the butcher is bound to win, until a new bidder emerges. Emilie's grandfather steps forward with a bid of 28 pounds, then declares that he is ready to keep bidding if he needs to do so. The butcher abandons the auction, and Joey is saved.
As Chapter 21 begins, the officers talk with Emilie's grandfather. Albert himself decides to tell the older man that he is Joey's original owner. Emilie's grandfather is sympathetically inclined towards Albert. He sees the two of them as similar, united by their identity as farmers and by their love of Joey, and shares the story of Emilie's own love for Joey and Topthorn. Acknowledging that Albert loves the horse, Emilie's grandfather decides to sell Joey to Albert for the price of a single penny, urging Albert to keep Emilie's memory alive. Albert pledges to do so. The old man departs.
Joey arrives back in his home village during the Christmas season, and he and Albert receive a warm welcome. Though Joey remembers all the friends he had lost at war, he also settles into a pleasant existence—though he does not bond well with Maisie, who soon becomes Albert's wife. In a change of attitude, Albert's father now adores the horse. Joey, in a final reflection, recalls that Maisie's excellent bread (but not her pastries) became part of his diet.
Analysis
Joey's return to the English forces does not necessarily usher in a safer period of the war for the beleaguered horse. Soon after Albert is reunited with his treasured animal, signs of tetanus appear in Joey. Joey's illness offers Albert's regiment an opportunity to live up to its principles—to "work night and day, twenty-six hours a day if need be to save and help every horse that we could" (136), as David explains the regiment's mission. The scene of cooperation between the German and the Welshman in No Man's Land has already proven that affection for horses can break down national antagonisms. Now, a similar sense of affection for and duty towards these animals motivates Joey's miraculous recovery.
The course of events at the front itself, though, remains supremely unpredictable. David is killed during a trip with some of the horses; it was little more than chance thanks to which Joey and Albert were not present to suffer the same fate at the same time. Fortunately for the remaining, grieving characters, this will be the last major combat death described in War Horse. Still, David's death fits into a saddening pattern: throughout the novel, pairs of close friends are ruptured, with one character meeting his demise and his counterpart living on. Albert has lost David, Joey has lost Topthorn, and even Captain Stewart has lost Captain Nicholls. It is the survivor's responsibility to endure the remainder of the war with fortitude while keeping his friend's memory alive.
However, Joey's own fate remains uncertain almost until the final chapter of the novel, since the impending horse auction has placed Joey in a new form of peril. Until Emilie's grandfather intervenes, a reader may have trouble imagining how Joey will survive. It is also difficult, though, to imagine that Morpurgo would choose to close War Horse on a bleak note, with Albert returning home on his own and Joey being sold off to a butcher. Such an ending would undermine the uplifting messages behind earlier efforts (the No Man's Land rescue, the regiment coming together during Joey's illness) to save Joey's life, not to mention the attempt by the soldiers and officers to raise funds to save Joey.
Albert's treasured horse is ultimately saved by one last lucky circumstance. Emilie's grandfather reappears—far too late to save Topthorn, but just in time to deliver one final message of understanding. Though this aging man does not speak to Albert for long, the words that they share draw them together despite their differences in nationality and generation. As the grandfather remarks to Albert, "You are a farmer, a British farmer and you ill understand that a farmer, whether he is British or French—even a Belgian farmer—never gives things away" (162). Shared background and shared affection for Joey helps the men to comprehend one another—as, perhaps, does their history of loss. Having lost friends of his own, Albert agrees to keep Emilie's memory alive; though he says little about how or why he will do so, he knows from losing David the pain of seeing a young person die and the need for conscientious commemoration.
For his part, Joey is aware that the dead must be commemorated even as life seemingly returns to normal. He returns to Albert's farm and lives out his days peaceably, but has not by any means forgotten his time at war. Whether Joey and Albert have changed much as a result of their war experiences is debatable. Neither, in fact, undergoes the kind of radical change that is seen in Albert's father, who transforms from a foul-tempered man into a kindly fellow who dotes on Joey "almost as much as on his own grandchildren" (165) after Joey re-appears. War has primarily evoked the best in Joey and Albert—the capacity for friendship, the ability to remember the dead while proactively living on—in a manner that reveals new sides to their already admirable personalities.
