The Red Pony
The story The Red Pony by John Steinbeck is about a boy named Jody whom is given a pony by his father. Jody is very proud of his pony and takes great care of it like he is supposed to. One day he leaves his pony out in the coral because it is sunny and he is told that it isn’t going to rain that day. Jody then goes to school and it begins to rain after twelve and Jody begins to worry about his pony. After school he runs home and put his pony in the barn. The pony is black from being soaked from the rain Jody begins to dry him and rub his its legs. That night Jody covers the pony with blankets but in the morning Jody can tell that his pony is ill. As the days go on the pony only get worse and becomes very sick. One morning Jody wakes up in the barn and finds the door wide open and his pony nowhere in sight. Jody flows the pony’s tracks and finds him dead. A few weeks later an old man come to the farm and says that he is going to stay there because he was born there on the land. Jody’s father only lets the old man eat with his family and stay for the night. In the morning during breakfast time the family is told the old man had been seen riding off into the mountains on Jody’s father’s horse and that is the last anyone sees the old man. A few weeks after Jody’s father tell him that if he is willing to work for it then he will get one of the horses’ bread and the colt will be his. Jody agrees and takes good care of the pregnant horse until it is time for the colt to be born. When the horse is ready Billy the ranch hand says that there is something wrong and the horse cannot turn the colt. To save the colt Billy kills the horse and cuts it open to take out the colt. Once Billy takes out the colt and lays it in front of Jody and tells him to clean it but Jody just stands there in sock from all that he had just seen.
I like Jody’s character in the story because it reminds me a lot of myself when I was a kid. Especially because of how he listens to his parents and isn’t disrespectful to them he does everything that they ask of him. He also reminds me of myself because he is always asking a lot of questions because he curious. As a child I can remember always asking my parents any question that came up in my head. I also liked how the author portrays him with a sense of innocence in the story because how he cares for his pony and reacts by worrying about it when it is very ill.
I didn’t like how the pony and the other horse died in the story it was very sad. I also did not like how Jody’s father reacted after they found Jody killing the bird. Jody’s father said “Jody, the buzzard didn’t kill the pony. Don’t you know that?” (pg174) It was as if Jody’s father just expected him to get over his pony dying. I didn’t like how Jody’s father was so emotional cold towards Jody and doesn’t really understand how Jody feels.
I think that the universal idea of the story is that not everyone know best and that you cannot control what is going to happen because in the beginning Jody trusted Billy with his pony. Although in the end Billy did not know what was best for the pony because the pony ended up dying. Billy also did not what was going to happen with the pregnant horse when she was ready he did not know whether thing were going to go wrong but he told Jody everything would be fine. Throughout the story Jody’s mother also told him to trust Billy because he supposedly knew best but he didn’t but he did his best to keep his promise and get Jody the colt.