The Red Pony

John Steinbeck · 1937 CE · Short Story · Modern / American · Modernist

Jody Tiflin is ten years old on his father's ranch under the Gabilan range, and is handed a red pony to break and look after by himself. Four linked episodes put him in front of a sick animal, a hired man who knows more than he will say, and an old man who came west until the ocean stopped him. What a boy gets taught about mortality by things nobody intended as lessons.

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