Customer Reviews

The Red Pony (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

Even though the book "The Red Pony", by John Stienbeck, was one of the saddest books I have ever read I would recommend it because the plot has many interesting turns and the theme is very emotional. "The Red Pony" was about a young boy, Jody, and his family who live on a ranch. The book consists of four short stories, each of which involves Jody learning a lesson of life. It is so tragic because in every story, something dies. In "The Gift" and "The Promise", two horses die, in "The Great Mountains" it is implied that Gitano committed suicide, and in "The Leader of the People" a part of Grandfather dies when he realizes that Westering has passed. When he realizes this, his whole motivation is gone, so a part of him is missing, or dead. My favorite story in "The Red Pony" was "The Promise", because I enjoyed the way Jody would imagine things about what he was doing on the way home from school, and about what the new colt would be like. Over all, I found this book very enjoyable, even though it was so melancholy.

I read some of these reviews and could not believe how unrealistic some of these people are. Why should every novel be a princess pretty tale? If that is what you need, keep pretending and don't ever read some of the most poignantly beautiful reflections of what it is like to be a 10 year old boy growing up on a farm!

This is a sensitive, time realistic story of what it would be like to live on a farm back in the days when you had to know practical therapy for your stock animals. These people respected their animals and knew that it was important to know emergency procedures, and knew how to do them to try and save their stock. Sometimes it worked, sometimes, it did not. It is this down side that focuses on Jody, the 10 year old son, that gets to own a pony who becomes ill with "strangles" a disease that shuts off his airway. The stockhand pulls no stops to save his life, and Jody chooses to stay by his beloved pony's side. The event is pivotal. As all events that revolve around life and death, this is the basis of which the story continues to move.

I do not find the story to be distasteful at all. I find it to be full of life and love. For those that can not get through the saddness of the pony dying, I feel sad that you missed some very relevant, affirming representations of the real meaning of life and love.

John Steinbeck's The Red Pony is a deceptively simple "young reader's" book that blossoms into full life meaning when examined as an artfully presented novella. The brief 100-page work reads like a four-paneled painting which, viewed from the proper perspective, should be appreciated for what it truly is--a remarkable rendition of realism in 20th century American literature.

What to expect from the book: Expect four loosely connected short stories or vignettes, not a tightly woven epic plot. Expect crisp, articulate prose, without the extravagant detail, depth of characterization and flowing drama afforded by a longer work. Expect to experience thought-provoking, coming-of-age events in a young Salinas ranch boy's life, not the entertaining action of a Hollywood thriller. Also, expect to have to dig a little to understand the author's message, not to be spoonfed the theme of this unique work.

Here's my view of the thematic "glue" holding the individual stories together:

1. Boy learns about death: In "The Gift," 10-year old Jody learns through the sudden sickness, suffering and gruesome, buzzard-pecked death of his beloved red pony, Gabilan, that even "happy" gifts can result in sadness and loss, despite the best efforts of well-intentioned adults.

2. Boy views consequences of the ways of man: In "The Great Mountains," Jody sees how compassion has its economic and cultural limitations, when father refuses to honor the old paisano, Gitano's, request to live out his remaining years on the ranch where he was born. Consequence: Gitano disappears into the lonesome mountains towards the west, riding father's decrepit horse and ominously carrying only a sharp-bladed rapier.

3. Through loss comes hope: Against a gloomy backdrop of loss, "The Promise" builds hope but culminates in the harsh choice between life of birthing mare and her breech-positioned colt. The bittersweet outcome, death of the mare to save her colt, is difficult to accept but does offer at least a glimmer of optimism.

4. Despite life's trials and tribulations, its fullness arises from having a sense of purpose: The final story, "The Leader of the People," mentions neither the loss of Jody's red pony nor his presumed raising of the newborn colt. Instead, the connection to the other stories and unifying message of the novella can be found, in my opinion, within the final, almost trivial event: "Grandfather was about to refuse, and then he saw Jody's face," which led him to accept Jody's offer to make him a glass of lemonade. Importantly, through the simple act of accepting Jody's offer, Grandfather nourishes the boy's sense of purpose. Although Grandfather's own life purpose has withered since that unforgettable year decades ago when he led a group of settlers out west, the boy's life lies ahead with plenty of potential for a purposeful future.

In sum, out of death, and love, springs life's potential: When life has a purpose, however big or small--from caring for a pony to returning to one's birthplace to die, from being a leader of the people to making lemonade for a loved one--we not only live but thrive. The Red Pony is a sensitive affirmation of life--recommended reading for anyone willing to experience a little darkness before seeing light.

I read this book aloud to my children; ages 10 and 12. It was fascinating in its detail. The language and style are observant, forceful, unadorned. California ranch life in the depression is drawn as spare - a tenuous, unforgiving existence without frills.

The characters are pithy, pragmatic, responsible. They stand in contrast to the people of the late 90's like the book's black cypress differs from an artificial Christmas tree. The end of the book leaves you wondering; trying to sort out what Steinbeck wanted us to understand. I enjoyed it. Enough that at midnight, before the week begins on Monday, I am trying to answer those questions for myself.

John Steinbeck's "The Red Pony" is a group of four interconnected stories: "The Gift," "The Great Mountains," "The Promise," and "The Leader of the People." Each story focuses on Jody Tiflin, a 10-year old boy growing up on a ranch on the west coast of the United States. The other main characters are Jody's parents and the ranch hand Billy Buck. Also frequently appearing are the ranch dogs, Doubletree Mutt and Smasher.

"The Red Pony" is not a novel, so readers expecting the cohesion and unity of a novel will be disappointed. The book should, in my opinion, be evaluated for what it is. And once you appreciate its own peculiar structure, you may, as I did, acknowledge "The Red Pony" as a powerful and beautiful work of art.

Steinbeck masterfully captures the cycles of life, death, and renewal in the lives of both his human and animal characters. He creates vivid, often visceral scenes, that are written in a quietly powerful language. There are moving moments of joy, horror, and heartbreak. "The Red Pony" is a significant achievement by one of America's enduring literary giants.

I read this book after studying Of Mice and Men for mt English Literature GCSE, and immediately feel in love with this warm, simple novella. It tells the story of Jody, a young boy growing up on an isolated ranch. During the narrative, he has to endure the gamut of emotions - from death through to love and responcibility and respect. The negative responce by most readers (ironically American!) made me quite angry. I can appreciate the widly held criticism of Steinbeck, that "nothing much happens" and the ending is usually predictable, but for me, one of the most beautiful and perceptive aspects of his writing is what isn't said - the subtle implications in the text invites you to dissect and analyse his ides for yourself. This involvement may not be for some people, but, personally, it fully enriches my reading experience. Also, Steinbeck would argue that he isn't writing a novella of suspence, but one about characters. So if you want to think for yourself while revisiting an un-tainted, un-quaint view of childhood, then try this. You never know - it may just grow on you!

What surprises me about the negative reviews of The Red Pony -- the proportion of which astonished me -- is why the readers who so terribly disliked the book (I see all four parts as "the book") persevered with it.

Sure, Carl Tiflin would be criticized by many, many products of Generation X, plus the one before it, whatever it's special identity. His austere nature and harsh ways of interacting with his wife and Jody (especially Jody) were not uncommon during a time when grubbing a living took every waking minute -- which is the timeline of this fine story. But the conflict Steinbeck expertly wove into the story was a critical part of it; it was not a bit contrived. We noted that Jody didn't hate his lot in life as a consequence of stern discipline, the complete absence of tender and caring outpourings from his father. Indeed, the discipline was present when the father was not: Jody caught himself pointing his .22 rifle at a forbidden target and reminded himself that ammunition would not be forthcoming for yet another year if his father had been there to see that act. Jody did, after all, have a .22 rifle -- a prior gift from his father, one with enormous meaning and carrying with it indelible notions of responsibility.

Billy Buck, a masterful Steinbeck stroke of characterization, was the buffer that absorbed some of the abrasiveness handed down by father to son, at other times dulling its cutting edge, and at still others obliquely giving the boy a means of rationalizing over it -- it isn't personal, Jody, just your father's way. It was clear that Jody was well aware of the latter, too.

His inability to embrace the boy with outward expressions of fatherly love was otherwise expressed by Carl in the gift of the .22, even burdened as it was by a year of abstinence from using it, and then by the gift of the red pony -- which also came with a price: warnings of the consequences that would come if the pony interfered with Jody's chores or school. Giving with one hand and threatening to take back with the other was not an uncommon form of conditional generousity during those tough times, and it's not to be despised now.

Carl's outspoken intolerance of Jody's maternal grandfather's despondency over his obsolescence was Steinbeck's means of revealing to us that Carl Tiflin did, actually, have a thread of feelings down deep, demonstrated by his remorse after discovering that Grandfather had overheard Carl trashing him and his ideas of "westering."

For all his faults, Carl Tiflin was an honorable, responsible, hardworking man. Those are the recollections Jody the man would have of his father, with never a thought of the qualities other observers disliked.

Too many fathers today don't have the stuff for stern discipline, or discipline to any degree, even though it's more essential today than it was in Jody's time. So we have novels about wild and courageously untameable teens despising and defying their parents, fictional characters who are mirrors of too many of their contemporaries, just as Jody was likely akin to many of his.

Maybe I earned a good measure of empathy for Carl -- and for Jody's uncritical acceptance of his stern ways. My own father, also a stern disciplinarian, was incapable of showing affection. Once, on no particular occasion where a gift was called for (and I got precious few when they were called for), he presented me with a fine cap pistol, a top-of-the-line model that made me the envy of my friends, few of whom were as poor as we were. But the presentation was made with grave warnings that it might have to serve as my Christmas present, admonitions against breaking it,leaving it out in the weather, and with a mitigating "reason" for the gift: It was a tool with which I could scare crows out of the maize field, blackbirds from the tomato patch.

Somehow, even then, I saw through his gravity and appreciated, truly appreciated, the cap pistol as an exceedingly generous gift. The power of that gift and my gratitude for it, as unworthy as I was often reminded that I was, is demonstrated by my vivid recollection of the act over a half-century later.

Steinbeck would have failed miserably with a story in which Carl Tiflin was an effusively loving father, eager to obtain frequent hugs and insincere expressions of "love" from Jody. He could have welcomed Grandfather into the Tiflin home with open arms. He could have shown some realization that old Gitano at least had some use for the equally useless ancient horse he soon planned to shoot (instead of his rationalizing over the benefit of saving pasture grass). But what kind of story would that have been? Not a Steinbeck, but a touchy-feely piece of crap with a good shot at best-seller status today.

Obviously, many contemporary readers don't like The Red Pony. But the vast majority of us who appreciate literature do. A sure sign of the story's worth is that it's still around after all these years. And it'll be around when most of what's written today will be long forgotten.

Doug Briggs

While there are other, greater works by Steinbeck, this one combines his disarmingly simple prose style with a number of concepts from his work in the 30s and early 40s. Mainly, the strange and ultimately destructive drive of humans in industrial society (as shown in the 4th story). The rest is a fascinating portrait of a boy's coming-of-age and alienation from his father. maybe people are tired of coming-of-age stories. but that doesn't mean Steinbeck's version isn't well-done.

This is considered one of Steinbeck's finest works.
The story of young Jody and his life on the family ranch is one in which he meets many tough, harsh realities and learns how to deal with them. The reader might expect something simple and easy here but that is not what is given. Steinbeck's descriptions of character and landscape of life- situation are complex, original and interesting. He gives a picture of a tough, pioneering American world. And in fact the ethic behind the book seems light - years away from much of what we see in our world today.
For among the values Jody has to learn are patience, and persistence, and humility before those older and wiser than himself. He understands that there are people who know much more than him and whom he learns from. He shows respect to them. He too in the way he cares for the Red Pony, shows a devotion and enthusiasm which are admirable.
He is forced to meet challenges from nature and the world which most young people today do not know anything of.
This is an admirable work in which much can be learned from.

Here's the thing: I understand that most of you have to read this for school, and that at your age, you're more put out by having to do something than by the book itself. Exloding helicopters do not good literature make. This is a beautiful piece of work about coming of age, of experiencing true love for something other than yourself, losing that love, and dealing with the harshness of that loss. Jody's not put up as some kind of perfect kid, but the book is written to help you recognize his feelings and maybe learn from him. One more thing: unless you're a genius, or have a master's degree in literature, you really can't say anything is a bad example of literature. You just don't know enough to make that claim.