Customer Reviews

The Red Pony, By John Steinbeck, Illustrated By Wesley Dennis

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This short book is comprised of several stories that take place during the formative years of a boy named Jody who is seen growing up on a farm in the countryside close to Salinas, California.

A keen observer of human psychology and an even better writer of it, author John Steinbeck can construct complex and life-like characters from a very small number of incidents in someone's life. His style of writing is immensely realistic, and yet neither dry nor familiarly journalistic. The stories covered here are only loosely related to each other, and each one of them can be read independently of the others. They center around typical aspects of rural life - taking care of a sick pony, witnessing the birth of a farm animal, dealing with a stranger who intends to stay on the farm without being welcome to do so, and the sudden visit of a relative.

Despite their rural setting, the underlying themes that Steinbeck explores are eminently relatable: learning for the first time about life and death, poignantly realizing that adults, despite their best intentions, are not always correct in their predictions, and having the epiphany that most interpersonal relations are not as straightforward and smooth as one might have previously thought. These are universal themes, and aside from the elegant writing style, are the main reason why this book has endured over the ages and become a classic.

Book Review Outline
Book title and author: "The Red Pony" by: John Steinbeck
Title of review: It was okay
Number of stars (1 to 5): ***

Introduction
A boy named Jody, ten years-old, watches as his father returns from work. The next day Billy Buck, a guy that works for his father, led him to the barn and showed Jody the new horse his father and Billy got for him.
Description and summary of main points
As Jody leaves for school sometime near Thanksgiving, he leaves it up to Billy Buck to put the pony in the barn if it started to rain. Billy doesn't return home with Jody's father until late that afternoon, so he didn't put the horse in the barn, the horse starts to become very ill.
Evaluation
That night Jody sleeps in the barn with the horse. When he awakes he realizes the horse is not in the barn, he runs over the hill looking for the horse. He sees him lying on the ground almost dead. When the vultures start to fly near he knows the horse's time is up. Billy carried Jody back to his house crying all the way.
Conclusion
The story ends by Jody's grandfather telling him stories about the "westering" (91). "There's no place to go the ocean stops you, there's a line of old men along the shore hating it because it stopped them" (91).
Your final review
The book was a lot better than what I thought, but it could have been better.