Seabiscuit: An American Legend Literary Elements

History, Sports History

California, late 1930's and early 1940's. Some scenes occur at other racetracks outside California.

The narrator is a semi-omniscient third person. The author relies on both primary and secondary sources to create her descriptions of conversations between characters. Sometimes direct quotations are provided, and the author is occasionally able to reconstruct a character's thoughts or feelings based on contemporary sources or on an interview.

The tone is chiefly upbeat and the mood is positive. Seabiscuit was a successful racehorse and his story has a relatively happy ending.

Seabiscuit is the protagonist. His chief antagonist is a rival racehorse named War Admiral.

The biggest challenge facing Seabiscuit, his owner, his jockey, and his trainer is the Santa Anita Handicap race, where the winner receives a prize of $100,000.

The major climax of the story is at the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap, however some key races from Seabiscuit's career (such as two prior Santa Anita attempts and two legendary match races against Ligaroti and War Admiral) are also in the story.

When Seabiscuit suffers a minor injury to the suspensory ligament in his ankle, and when he is scratched repeatedly from races, rumors begin to circulate suggesting that Seabiscuit is fragile, injured, and frequently in danger. Finally, Seabiscuit really does suffer what is generally considered a career-ending injury to the same ankle.

When Tom Smith is asked to describe Seabiscuit, he says: "He's a horse."

The book makes frequent allusions and references to the Great Depression, which was still gripping the United States. The Depression, and the associated need for Americans to find distractions from the terrible weather and economic conditions, created ideal circumstances for a new kind of hero: a sports hero.

Racing imagery appears throughout the book. The author describes the jockeys' uniforms, gear, and racing experience in thrilling detail. Even George Woolf's death scene is depicted in detail. The author describes the smell of the horse, the feel of the horse's mane, and the thunder of hooves.

In order to win money, Seabiscuit had to run quickly enough to win races. Yet if he ran too quickly, the race organizers would assign the horse a high impost or extra weight to carry, which would handicap Seabiscuit and make it harder for him to win.

Seabiscuit's comeback from his injury parallels the recovery of the United States from the Great Depression.

"The press" is regarded by many, including Tom Smith, as a faceless, nameless mass of individuals that somehow possesses a collective will. In reality, it is simply a group of reporters who occasionally refer to themselves as "the wise we boys". John Howard has a more enlightened view of the press: he goes out of his way to cultivate particular reporters in order to ensure more extensive discussion of his famous horse.

All the main characters in the story (Pollard, Howard, Smith, and Seabiscuit himself) personify the underdog. Seabiscuit and other racehorses are also occasionally anthropormorphized by the author and described as having human-like emotions and capacity for reason.