Fan-Lit: Review of The Red Pony

Review of "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

Buy the book here https://amzn.to/3E4vbCt

“The Red Pony” is a four-part story about a young boy named Jody who lives on a ranch with his mother, his father Carl, and ranch hand Billy. This is a coming-of-age story, and each of the four offers a new life lesson for Jody (Sparknotes.com). The stories take place over about two years. Jodi is a typical ten-year-old boy in the country; Jody loves horses and animals and spends lots of time outdoors doing chores and playing games. In the first story, Jody receives a horse and promises his dad to take care of the horse. Ranch hand Billy Buck is seen as a horse expert, so Jody trusts him with the red pony. When the pony gets sick and dies, Jody blames Billy. The lesson he learns is that people can make mistakes and that death is a part of life.

The second story is about an old Hispanic man born on their land ages ago and had to return there to die. The old man goes into the mountains to spend the last days of his life. Jody has always admired the mountains and eagerly asked the man about them. Jody sees it as an adventure and learns that he and his father do not share the same interests in life. He also comes to understand the old man better than he does his father (Sparknotes.com).

The third story is about Jody getting a new horse. His father pays for his mare to get bred with his neighbor's stallion, and Jody will get to raise the colt. Billy tells Jody that it takes a long time to birth a colt, and Jody has to learn patience. When the mare does give birth, there are complications, and Billy has to kill the horse to save the colt. Jody's experience from losing his red pony pays off here, in that while he witnesses the death of a lovely horse, death and brings new life, and he gets a colt to raise.

The last story is about Jody's grandfather coming to visit. Carl complains about the grandfather constantly telling the same stories over and over again. When the grandfather overhears Carl, Carl has to take it back, but the grandfather takes it to heart. Jody admires his grandfather's stories and wishes that he could travel across the plain, trailblazing. His grandfather admits that while he loved his time as the leader of people, taking them across the plains and fighting off native Americans, he has come to terms with the fact that it's over. In the end, he questions what it was all for and where does he go from here. This shows Jody that a life of adventure does not lead to happiness (Sparknotes.com).

A running theme throughout the book is Jody learning that he is different from his father. In the beginning, Jody is a young boy; he's obedient to his father and looks up to him and Billy Buck. As the story goes on, he takes more risks, is exposed to more of the complex and gritty aspects of life, and matures to the point where he realizes his life will not be the same as his father's.

Now that I have read more from John Steinbeck, I have learned that I prefer his shorter stories to his iconic classic “The Grapes of Wrath”. It was a short book to read, and my copy was exactly 100 pages. I enjoyed “In Dubious Battle” and “Of Mice and Men”. I loved his short story “The Chrysanthemums”. This was a different story for Steinbeck to tell, and I enjoyed the coming of age story. There's not much character, and it reminds me more of Steinbeck's novel “Tortilla Flat”. Although I think I like this more than “Tortilla Flat”. This is one of Steinbeck's better novels that I have read. I still have two more stories to read. Next up is his short story “The White Quail” and will conclude with “Cannery Row”.