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.