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JOHN STEINBECK
The
Red Pony
Biography
•John
Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas,
California, on February 27, 1902 , of German
and Irish ancestry.
•His father, John Steinbeck, Sr., was the
County Treasurer and his mother, Olive
(Hamilton) Steinbeck, was a former school
teacher.
•Young Steinbeck learned about ranch life as
a teen during summers. Later, these
experiences would help him create rich
characters and beautiful descriptions of the
land.
•After graduating from Salinas High School in
1919, Steinbeck attended Stanford
University.
•
Biography
•He
left Stanford permanently in
1925 and moved to New York City
to follow his dream of becoming a
writer.
•His first novel, Cup of Gold, was
published in 1929, but was not
well received.
•Steinbeck married his first wife,
Carol Henning, in 1930. She was
Steinbeck’s unofficial editor.
•Tortilla Flat (1935) marked the
turning point in Steinbeck's literary
career. It received the California
Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal
for best novel by a California
,
Biography
•Steinbeck
continued writing, using a lot of research,
personal experiences, and observations about
people and their hopes, sorrows, and dreams. The
Grapes of Wrath (1939) won the Pulitzer Prize.
•Steinbeck married two more times: To Gwyn
Conger (1942) and Elaine Scott (1950).
•During World War II, Steinbeck was a war
correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.
•John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1962 “...for his realistic as well as
imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic
humor and a keen social perception” (Nobel Prize
citation speech).
. Steinbeck died December 20, 1968, in New York
City and is survived by his son, Thomas.
The Red Pony
The Red Pony
•The
Red Pony is actually not a
novel but four short stories
written by Steinbeck in the 1930s
and compiled as a single
collection in 1945.
•The four stories do read like a
novel as each share similar
themes and characters.
MAIN CHARACTERS:
•Jody
Tiflin - Jody is the
protagonist of the novel. He is
the only child of Carl and Ruth
Tiflin. In the first story of the
novel, he is about ten years old.
He grows from story to story, but
is still a young boy at the end of
the book.
•
The Red Pony
•
Billy Buck - Billy Buck is the
single hired hand on Carl
Tiflin's farm. An experienced
middle-aged man, he is very
good with horses, and Carl
trusts him deeply.
Carl Tiflin - Carl Tiflin and
Mrs. Tiflin are Jody's parents.
Carl runs a tight ranch, but he
is by no means rich. He can
be stern and cold at times but
is generally a good father.
The Red Pony
•Mrs.
Tiflin - Mrs. Tiflin
usually stays in the
house, cooking meals
and keeping house for
the men of the ranch.
•Grandfather - Mrs.
Tiflin's father, Jody's
Grandfather, is an old
man who lives in
Monterey and
sometimes visits the
Tiflin ranch. When he
was a younger man, he
led a wagon train across
the Great Plains to
California.
The Red Pony
•Gitano
- Gitano is an
old paisano man; in
other words, a man of
Hispanic descent. He
was born in a small
adobe house that
stood on what is now
the Tiflin ranch.
•Gabilan - A horse,
the red pony is a
young colt. He
belongs to Jody and is
Jody's responsibility.
National Steinbeck Center—Salinas
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
The Red Pony Photos(Courtesy of The
Steinbeck Institute)
1930s Great Depression Era Photos
Unemployed men vying for jobs at the American Legion
Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great Depression.
1930s Hooverville
Squatter's Camp, Route 70,
Arkansas, October 1935.
Photographer: Ben Shahn
1930s Salinas Valley Lettuce
Pickers Philipinos cutting lettuce, Salinas, California, 1935.
Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
1930s Dust Bowl
Farmer and sons, dust storm,
Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936. Photographer: Arthur
Rothstein.
1930s California Migrant Camp
Migrant
pea pickers camp in the rain. California, February 1936.
Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
1930s Migrant Family
The photograph that has
become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of
photographs that Dorothea Lange made in February or March of
1936 in Nipomo, California
.
The Most Famous Photo of the
DepressionDorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother," destitute
in a pea picker's camp, because of the failure of the early pea
crop.
The Red Pony: Themes
Themes to Consider as
we Read:
•
Death
•
The Cruelty of Nature
•
Sacrifice
•
Fallibility
•
Disappointment
•
Adventure
•
Frustration
•
Responsibility