Initiation And Destruction: Steinbeck's The Red Pony

As the foremost novelist of the American Depression of the 1930s, John Steinbeck is famous for his sympathy for the migrant workers and the down-trodden and he has written many successful works about the life of the laboring people, among which The Grapes of Wrath is his masterpiece. Besides this representative work, Steinbeck also won his fame and popularity from his well-written short novels. The Red Pony is one of his most widely read short novels for the youth. Steinbeck won National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded a Novel Prize for literature.The present thesis is an attempt to analyze the short novel The Red Pony in the light of two comparatively contrary themes: one is the initiation of the protagonist, and the other is the destruction concerning the protagonist and the people and the things around him.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first chapter is introduction, in this part some background knowledge is provided, including the life of the author John Steinbeck and his main works. Then, literature review follows, including both home and abroad. After literature review, the author proposes that though Steinbeck has been studied for a long time, yet the research has been mainly restrained to his major works The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. The Red Pony, though is popular reading material in high schools, has much less attention from literary critics, not to mention from the aspect of initiation story.Chapter Two mainly deals with the topic of initiation. Some explanations of the differences among the synonyms such as"initiation story","Bildungsroman","Novel of life", etc. is presented at the beginning of this part, which is followed by the analysis of the archetype of initiation and the development of initiation stories in the United States. This part presents a general idea of the literary term"initiation story". The plot of the story The Red Pony is also introduced in this chapter, including four short stories:"The Gift","The Great Mountains","The Promise"and"The Leader of the People".Chapter Three is intended to analyze the protagonist's initiation process, that is, how the protagonist develops from a boy who is innocent, dependent, obedient, simple-minded and a little selfish to one who is comparatively mentally and psychologically mature, who has his own thinking after experiencing several events. Two important elements in initiation story are revealed in this part, that is, the mentors and the epiphany in the protagonist's initiation. There is more than one mentor in the process of the protagonist's initiation, among whom the ranch hand of the farm, Billy Buck, has influenced Jody most. The old man Gitano and Jody's grandfather also play an important role in Jody's initiation and they are also the mentors during the protagonist's growth and development towards maturity. Epiphany in initiation stories refers to the hero's comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization. Generally speaking, there are two type of epiphany: one is derived from protagonists'everyday life; the other results from protagonists'sudden events, which might often be tragic. Jody's epiphany in his initiation comes from both everyday life and sudden, tragic event.Chapter Four is concerned with the other theme of this thesis: destruction, which is contrary to initiation. Together with Jody's growth and maturity, there exists a series of destructive factors during the protagonist's initiation. These factors are not necessarily of Jody's own, and they may be related to other people or components in the story. The theme"destruction"contains many aspects, including the death of the protagonist's beloved pony, the disappearance of the old man and the smash of Grandfather's dream over the past, etc. These negative aspects accompany the protagonist's initiation and form an inseparable part in the story.The four short stories in the novel present us Jody's initiation into compassionate adulthood by painfully learning of four crucial personal experiences, through which Jody's psychological and mental changes are gradually acquired and in which the protagonist has begun his crucial step towards maturity. The thesis concludes that in the process of initiation, the protagonist unavoidably experiences some negative aspects such as puzzlement, pain, struggle, frustration and death and it is these negative things together with the help of his mentors that finally makes the protagonist's initiation possible.