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    The Red Pony
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    The Red Pony
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    The Red Pony
    Audiobook2 hours

    The Red Pony

    Written by John Steinbeck

    Narrated by Frank Muller

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    John Steinbeck's masterpiece celebrates the spirit and courage of adolescence. Steinbeck draws on his memories of childhood in these stories about a boy who embodies both the rebellious spirit and the contradictory desire for acceptance of early adolescence. Unlike most coming-of-age stories, the cycle does not end with a hero "matured" by circumstances. Reversing common interpretations, The Red Pony is imbued with a sense of loss. Jody's encounters with birth and death express a common theme in Steinbeck's fiction: They are parts of the ongoing process of life, resolving nothing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 15, 2011
    ISBN9781101530962
    Unavailable
    The Red Pony
    Author

    John Steinbeck

    John Steinbeck (Salinas, 1902 - Nueva York, 1968). Narrador y dramaturgo estadounidense. Estudió en la Universidad de Stanford, pero desde muy joven tuvo que trabajar duramente como albañil, jornalero rural, agrimensor o empleado de tienda. En la década de 1930 describió la pobreza que acompañó a la Depresión económica y tuvo su primer reconocimiento crítico con la novela Tortilla Flat, en 1935. Sus novelas se sitúan dentro de la corriente naturalista o del realismo social americano. Su estilo, heredero del naturalismo y próximo al periodismo, se sustenta sin embargo en una gran carga de emotividad en los argumentos y en el simbolismo presente en las situaciones y personajes que crea, como ocurre en sus obras mayores: De ratones y hombres (1937), Las uvas de la ira (1939) y Al este del Edén (1952). Obtuvo el premio Nobel en 1962.

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    Reviews for The Red Pony

    3.5/5

    926 ratings47 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Why is this called the Red Pony? Why are classics such as this so depressing? I've never finished this story because......






      Spoiler alert
      THE RED PONY DIES IN THE 1ST CHAPTER!!!!

      Seriously? Yuck!
    • 3/5
      I am certain I have read this before, and maybe even in primary school. Billy Buck's words about the rooster's mark on the eggs and how to perform a tracheotomy on a horse rushed back to me as a blast from the past. I do not remember the book being so sad, and it must have been an abridged version, unless, of course, we have become more conservative in literature than we were in the 1970s.
    • 4/5
      Interesting story!
    • 5/5
      The Red Pony is a story that is more about a boy, Jody, than it is about a pony. The boy lives on a farm with his mother, father, and a farmhand. The boy is trying to grow up following the model of the relationships that the adults in his life have set for him. He is trying to become an adult, and as he does so, his relationship with his father is changing.The changing relationships that Jody encounters are a central theme of the book. In the beginning his relationship with his father, Carl, is cold but his father clearly loves him. This relationship will grow and change over the course of the book. The farmhand, Billy Buck, is more father-like to Jody than his actual father, but Billy struggles to be honest with Jody if honesty could hurt him. His mother seems to be the one who best knows how to handle Jody emotionally, but she can also be coldly distant towards him at times. Each of these relationships changes and grows during the book as Jody grows and matures.Although there are clear central themes to the book such as Jody's growing relationships and maturity, the plot is more enigmatic. The plot consists of four episodes that aren't tied together very much. In the first Jody gets a red pony from his father. In the second a Mexican man visits the ranch and wants to stay there because he was born there. In the third Jody helps look after a mare who is pregnant with a colt, and in the fourth the family is visited by Jody's grandfather. It is unclear how these stories are related other than that they reveal more about characters and theme.Overall, I really liked this book. It left me pondering how everything was connected and why Steinbeck highlighted certain aspects of the characters and setting more than others. Additionally, these characters were interesting and had me wondering why Steinbeck created them. It was a thought provoking book that was an enjoyable read.
    • 2/5
      Is there a reason people like this book that I didn't get? Often people say an incomprehensible book is "deep", but there's nothing deep here. There's a horse that dies, some guy comes over to die, and grandpa comes over. Steinbeck's great writing fails the story because he describes the worst things in terrific detail, and wastes time on minute details.
    • 3/5
      John Steinbeck’s ‘The Red Pony’ is about ten-year-old Jody Tiflin who is an only child and his journey from childhood to adolescent. ‘The Red Pony is a classic story of a boy’s initiation into manhood’, (Kilpatrick, W., et al., 1994, p. 161). It is divided into four distinct chapters; The Gift (p. 1); The Great Mountains (p. 41); The Promise (p. 61) and The Leader of the People (p. 87).The GiftIn this chapter the characters and setting are introduced to the reader. The main characters include Jody, his father Carl Tiflin, his mother and ranch hand Billy Buck. Carl is stern and at times quite cold while Billy is warm and understanding and spends time teaching Jody about horses. Carl gives Jody a red pony which he names Gabilan after the mountains that surround the ranch. Jody takes very good care of the pony, but just as Billy is about to teach him to ride, the pony is mistakenly left out in the rain and develops a bad cold. He becomes extremely sick and Billy has to cut open a lump of puss and carve a hole in the pony’s throat so it can breathe. Unfortunately the pony leaves the barn one night and Jody follows a group of circling buzzards which lead him to the pony’s dead body. On finding the pony Jody kills one of the buzzards.The Great MountainsAn old Mexican man, Gitano, appears on the ranch, claiming he was born there and wants to stay until he dies. Carl Tiflin says he can stay one night but must leave the next morning. Jody visits him that night and sees him polishing an old sword and asks him if he has been in the great mountains that so fascinate Jody. The next morning the old man and an old horse of Carl’s have gone, Jody assumes, into the mountains.The PromiseCarl and Billy decide Jody should have a colt as he took such good care of the red pony. He is sent with a mare called Nellie to a neighbouring ranch to have her bred. The cost is $5 and Jody has to work hard for his father to pay for the colt. There is unease in Jody’s mind that something will go wrong because of the red pony’s death which Billy feel responsible for. It is almost a year before Nellie is ready to give birth. Complications lead to Billy killing Nellie and cutting the colt out of her stomach in his desperation not to disappoint Jody again. The Leader of the PeopleA letter comes for Jody’s mother, from his grandfather saying that he is coming to visit. Carl is annoyed because he is sick of rehearing stories from him about crossing the Great Plains as the head of a wagon train. Jody goes and meets his grandfather on the road and that night he tells his usual stories. The next morning Jody’s father openly complains about him. The grandfather walks in to breakfast, having overheard and Jody’s father apologises. Later, as Jody sits with his grandfather on the porch he talks about how he really feels, wondering if it was really worth it to cross the plains and how frustrating it was to be stopped by the ocean. He says that what was important was not crossing the plains, but the act of leading people across it. SummaryThis is not the sort of book that I would normally pick up to read but having read and really enjoyed ‘East of Eden’ by Steinbeck recently I thought I would try it. I have a vague recollection of seeing the movie on TV when I was much younger and of the pony dying horribly and how sad it was. This didn’t appeal to me in any way which is why I hadn’t read the book. The cover is quite unappealing and in sepia tones featuring a pony’s neck and head. I found the first chapter pretty gruesome and unappealing. Jody has a dysfunctional relationship with his father and Billy sometimes seems more of a father to him even though Jody feels let down by Billy through Gabilan’s death. I find Steinbeck’s writing richly descriptive, but feel that in this novel nothing is resolved. The chapters feel very disjointed and don’t seem to flow. I was confused as to why the colt is born and then not mentioned again in the third chapter. Surely it would be one of the things that Jody would first want to show off to his grandfather. I also found that the ending left me hanging as it was so abrupt and puzzling or perhaps just too deep for me to get!
    • 5/5
      Achingly beautiful...
      Crammed full and rich to palpitating.

      Ever cared for a dog hit by a car in its dying moments?
    • 3/5
      A novella about a young farm boy learning about the cruelties of life while gaining some empathy.Beautifully written, but the suffering of animals is something I find almost impossible to read (thus down-grade to 3*) ; so glad this was such a short tale, but i did appreciate the economically-rendered characters, place & time of a gifted writer.
    • 4/5
      I had previously read The Red Pony by John Steinbeck in high school and didn’t remember much about it except there was a sad event that took place during the course of the story. This is an episodic novella with four different stories about a pre-adolescent boy, Jody Tiflin, who lives on a ranch in the Salinas Valley of California. The first story is entitled “The Gift” and is about how Jody’s father brings home a red pony for Jody to raise. Jody is overjoyed with the horse, but sadly, the pony gets ill after being left out in the rain, and even though the hired man, Billy, assures Jody that the pony will get better, Jody finds himself having to face the inevitability of death. The other stories “The Great Mountains”, “The Promise” and “The Leader of the People” all illustrate episodes in Jody’s life and carry on the theme of anger, death and disappointment but for me, it is the first story that totally commands my attention. This is certainly not a “feel good” read but it is beautifully written. His stark descriptions and his excellence at showing strong human emotions draw the reader into this timeless coming-of-age story that is stark, raw and powerful.
    • 4/5
      Great book! Reading Steinbeck is like talking to a great friend! I read the first story in this collection in school and I'm really glad I re-read it and read the whole thing! The characters are so vivid - Jody, Billy Buck, Gabilan, and Gitano, to name a few - and the settings are alive with the author's vibrant description! I think I'll re-read The Pearl next! :-)
    • 1/5
      I remember reading this in grade school. Didn't care for the fact that the book was split into different parts and didn't seem to make any sense put together.

      Apparently this is one of characteristic of steinbeck's style, if I recall correctly.
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure I read it or if I have a false memory of reading it.
    • 5/5
      Steinbeck crafts these stories of life that just hit you on a gut level. He creates these people and places and makes it all feel so familiar.In The Red Pony, we get a slice of farm life in the character of Jody, a young boy who faces the hard facts of growing up through several instances in his young life, the first being his experience caring for and losing his first pony.Also included in this book is the story Junius Maltby. I had never even heard of this story before, and it hit way too close to home for me. I relate to Maltby because he is a lot like me. I feel like I've been living a similar life to Junius Maltby in recent years, and the ending made me quite upset.
    • 4/5
      A wonderful semi-tragic coming of age story. Life, death, birth, rebellion against the father, peer consciousness, the twists and turns of fate as the boy's eyes are opened to the harsh realities of life. One feels that his respect for his grandfather (mutual respect) will help pull him through it all on his way to maturity.
    • 1/5
      what an awful, awful story!
    • 5/5
      I read this book in 7th grade and decided to read it again, I thought that it was possibly on the cusp of Children's Literature as I had read it in middle school. It was one of my favorites then, and it is still one of my favorites. It takes on a different meaning when you are older and reading it. You realize it is not a story about the pony after all and that it is more about the changes Jody goes through in life and how he has to mature.
    • 3/5
      Steinbeck writes beautifully. It doesn't matter what he's writing about, I think I'd read it anyway for the measured, deliberate, crystal-clear prose.

      The Red Pony is not really about the pony. I'm sure as a lit student I could find a lot to say about it, but I'm happier sitting back and letting it happen. It's about growing up and coming to understand life, in stages, and as such it has no end: Jody's a little older and wiser at the end than the beginning, but he has a long way to go still too.
    • 3/5
      It's a long while since I've read any Steinbeck. I can't even remember exactly when I devoured East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath, but it was probably in my mid-teens, spurred on by James Dean fetishism. I remember liking their grim, social commentary/realism.

      This is a kids book (although, being Steinbeck, that doesn't mean it's much less grim) but a glance at patches made me think the quality of the writing would carry it off for me. It doesn't really. As others have said, it's really three brief short stories more than a novel, each one pretty much disconnected from the others apart from involving the same charaters.

      I'll have a go at another, "adult" Steinbeck in the future, but this one's on the op shop pile.
    • 3/5
      Compared to the other Steinbeck I've read so far, I've felt underwhelmed with this one. Death and gloom abound. It's tough growing up. Life goes on.
    • 5/5
      Having reread Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath this year, I had a clear memory of Steinbeck’s power to tell a story both in action and in feeling. And then I read The Red Pony. Wow. Can I say that I think Red Pony may be an even better book than Grapes? Hard to believe, I know, but true, I think. A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.
    • 4/5
      It's easy to misunderstand Steinbeck's The Red Pony. I can think of a couple reasons why this is so. First, the title. Steinbeck was known as having a problem with titles. Naming this one The Red Pony was probably his first idea—much like Something That Happened was his original idea for Of Mice and Men and The Salinas Valley his title for East of Eden. Fortunately, Steinbeck's friends, editors, and publishers were not afraid to offer criticism of his titles. Perhaps they should have had something to say about this one. Secondly, this is not a novel. And no, it's not a novella either. It was not originally meant as a stand alone piece. It was part of a collection and the stories within are stories meant to essentially stand individually. Trying to connect all the loose ends can be quite frustrating. Finally, this isn't a children's book. Not sure how it ever came to this classification, but it is misleading. Granted this is one of Steinbeck's most child-friendly works, but only for the parent who doesn't mind subjecting their child to the image of a vulture vomiting up the eye of a boy's beloved pony.

      Misunderstandings aside, The Red Pony was a wonderful 100-page read. Steinbeck's strong language and characters are throughout. As are his stories of hope, saturated with fear and sadness, misunderstandings and missed opportunities. It's a fabulous introduction to the power of Steinbeck when viewed as a collection of four short stories. Four short stories about a boy—and not so much his pony.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes, when a book's title mentions ponies, one might think of The Saddle Club or rich white girls in knee-high boots. A middle-school girl's horse obsession might come to mind. This is not one of those books. Steinbeck wrote about the common man, the everyday person who experiences an exceptionally ordinary life- although this sort of life might seem foreign to us in 2013. This can be a difficult book, especially for those of us who grew up far away from the farms that produce our food. Steinbeck doesn't pull any punches when describing any of the unpleasant aspects of farm life, and he doesn't shy away from death. Steinbeck treats death as a part of life, not a separate event, as we tend to do now. Remember that this is really more of a handful of short stories that happen to feature the same basic characters. It is not a novel, and it's not composed of chapters. Thankfully, the edition I have mentions this in the blurb on the back, otherwise I might have been pretty confused. This book doesn't have much of a climax, nor does it have a resolution, really, or a moral, or a "point." It's a few stories that are each a peek into a world where life is going on as usual. I found it to be beautifully written, describing the beauty one can find in the mundane, if one only bothers to look. It's not an easy read, because life is not, nor has it ever been, easy- except for a select lucky few. The average family, especially a family who lived during the time period this story is set in, doesn't live a cushy existence, and they are the people Steinbeck wrote about.
    • 2/5
      I must admit to being rather disappointed with this one but then perhaps my expectations were too high. Whilst it was interesting how Jody evolved from a boy to a young man and at times the story was a little brutal. But I had expected the Red Pony to be in the story rather more than it was, in fact it died fairly early on. In truth the book is made up of 4 short stories with all the same characters within it. Steinbeck seemed to capture the spirit of growng up in the rural West (did not grow up there so can only imagine) but in the end I was just grateful that it is a fairly short book. In fact I enjoyed the bonus short of 'Junius Maltby' far more and without that the book would probably have been given the 1 star
    • 4/5
      A tragic tale of friendship, love and loss, that I read in elementary school, that continues to resonate and remain vivid with me these many years later.
    • 4/5
      [The Red Pony by John Steinbeck First line:~ At daybreak Billy Buck emerged from the bunkhouse and stood for a moment on the porch looking up at the sky ~ Once again, wonderfully written. I love Steinbeck.This one is 4 short stories woven together to tell the story about a young boy growing up on a farm and his first horse. Sad, beautiful. I have nothing more to say.
    • 3/5
      As I'm sure many have said before me, this little book is not an easy read, and in this coming of age story, our little boy Jody is in for some very tough life lessons. It's probably helpful to know from the outset that the four stories that make up this book are meant to explore different themes and are not to be read as four continuous chapters, which is how I approached the book and consequently was confused by the lack of continuity. Jody is a young boy living on a ranch around Salinas, California sometime at the beginning of the 20th century. He lives with his mother and father who are both strict with him—and in the case of his father also a stern disciplinarian—as well as Billy Buck, a ranch hand whom Joey looks up to. The red pony in question is the focus of the first story, The Gift, in which the young boy learns difficult lessons about life and death, and discovers his own capacity for killing. The themes of the Western settlers and the natives to the area are also explored. What I came away with was that Steinbeck felt he needed to establish himself as a realistic author in what was his third published work, and as such set out to break down any romantic notions a boy could have about living on a ranch, having horses, having a strong father figure, and the great adventure that was conquering the West. Rather a difficult read, especially for animal lovers like myself, but I think, an important one as it helps to see Steinbeck's ability to create a very real world with characters that breathe and have their own motivations, all the while exploring existential themes, all in a small packaging where very little, if anything at all, is wasted.
    • 4/5
      If I had known the layout of this book prior to reading it, I believe I would have appreciated it more than I did. You see, this book is not one story about a boy and his pony but rather a collection of stories that at first read appear to have little relationship to the first story, that of the red pony. It was through a second reading and invaluable information gotten from a Group Read that enlightened me as to what Steinbeck's theme for this book actually centered upon. The four short stories shich make up The Red Pony deal with a young man's emotional wakefulness. Entering his teenage years Jodie is introduced to love, death, birth, responsibility, aging and yearnings for, what is at this time, unattainable.Again, Steinbeck artfully describes his beloved California landscape with micro details and then when that is done explodes in macro fashion to expose the entire landscape and its inhabitants. Certainly, not my favorite Steinbeck but definitely worthy of your time and reflection.
    • 4/5
      Jody Tiflin is ten years old. He lives on a ranch in Northern California and one day he is presented with a red pony, he names Gabilan. With the guidance of the old ranch-hand Billy Buck, he raises and trains this young horse.This is four related stories, touching on responsibility and mortality. Steinbeck describes these subjects in a harsh, unflinching light. Despite, some potent prose, this is not one of my favorite books by this revered author. Something seems to be missing from the center of these tales…heart or some soul, maybe? I’m glad I reread it but it will be one I won’t be going back to, anytime soon.
    • 3/5
      “The little boy, Jody," is growing up on an idyllic ranch in the Salinas Valley. His little world is comprised of his loving mother, his authoritarian and overbearing father and the humble ranch hand, Billy Buck. Jody’s world changes when his father brings home a red pony for Jody to raise and train. This is Jody’s doorway to manhood; it sets him apart from the other schoolboy friends his age: “They knew instinctively that a man on a horse is spiritually as well as physically bigger than a man on foot. They knew that Jody had been miraculously lifted out of equality with them, and had been placed over them.” Jody’s idyllic world is shattered, sadly, when the red pony is lost through some inadvertent neglect. With the loss of the pony, Jody’s childhood innocence starts slipping away. The red pony shows up in different incarnations throughout the story. Each time this happens Jody learns a lesson that is a step towards manhood. Jody is learning that life doesn’t always turn out the way we wish it too, there is loss and sorrow. He is also learning that his gods have clay feet. Billy Buck isn’t infallible and his father’s harshness is hurtful not only to Jody but to others as well and Jody has to choose between two paths: the one of pride or the one of humility.Although I liked this story, The Red Pony is my least favorite of all Steinbeck’s works I’ve read so far. Steinbeck’s ability to paint a vivid picture of place, character, and his ability to simply drop the reader in the middle of the story are all there but the subtlety that marks his other works is missing. I felt like Steinbeck was trying too hard to be metaphorical and profound. The Red Pony was one of his first published works so for that alone, this was an interesting read, but still a so/so one for me.
    • 1/5
      I hated The Red Pony when I had to read it for school when I was a kid. But that was also true of some other books that I later came to love (such as Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter) and I have since enjoyed some (though not many) of Steinbeck's other books (particularly Of Mice and Men and East of Eden), so I decided to give it another chance.Now I *loathe* it.My major complaint when I was younger was that the story was disconnected---what happens in one chapter seems to have little or no bearing on the others, or even contradicts them. The eponymous red pony is gone after the first chapter; another pony is born at the end of the third, but makes no appearance in the fourth. It turns out that this is because this isn't really so much a novel as a collection of short stories, which were originally published separately though they feature the same characters.But there is a deeper, thematic, unity to these stories, and that is what I detest about them now. They are all about death. Not just any natural death, either, but particularly horrible deaths. And this is in the context of stories about a young boy on the cusp of manhood; according to Steinbeck, growing up is largely (if not entirely) about learning about death. For Steinbeck, death defines life.Only the fourth story doesn't contain a gleeful depiction of a disgusting death. It centers on a visit from the boy's grandfather, much to the chagrin of the boy's father, who hates his father-in-law's visits because of the old man's tiresomely repeated stories. This is the basis for what could be an amusing story or even a meaningful one, but it is itself incredibly tedious---though it does almost manage to convey an interesting meaning when the boy's grandfather tells him, "I tell those stories, but they're not what I want to tell. I only know how I want people to feel when I tell them." But what he goes on to say isn't nearly as profound or interesting as Steinbeck apparently intended it to be, and even if it were it probably wouldn't be enough to redeem the rest of this worthless book. Even Frank Muller's narration of this audio edition couldn't much improve it.Not that death isn't a part of life...but there is more to life than death. But you wouldn't know it by reading The Red Pony.