John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, a collection of stories revolving around a young boy coming of age, and The Grapes of Wrath, a novel written about a family's journey from the aftermath of the Dust Bowl to their life in California, illustrates that a person’s character changes when one goes through adversities and grows from those obstacles. People don’t just experience hardships and forget about what happened. There is something that provokes feeling in them to cause a change in the way they may act or hold themselves in life because of every event that they have to encounter. Steinbeck uses this idea to portray Jody Tiflin from The Red Pony, and the Joad family, from The Grapes of Wrath, as products of this situation. Although Steinbeck seems to just write about everyday obstacles like death and social injustice, a closer examination of his works reveals that how one grows from adversities such as death and social injustice in the world changes one’s character.
In the first novel, The Red Pony describes Jody Tiflin experiencing death for the first time. Steinbeck uses this adversity to show how Jody eventually comes of age by narrating his thoughts and feelings. The story begins at the home of Jody and his family, who lives on farm. Jody, like any child, has dreams and curiosities, but it involves the idea of death. By the end of the …show more content…
Gitano claims that he was born where Jody and his family currently reside. He asks Jody’s father to let him stay, and when Carl grants Gitano one night, Gitano tells Jody about his rapier. After their conversation, Jody leaves a bit curious about who Gitano really is. The next morning Gitano leaves with one of the family’s old horses and goes into the mysterious Gabilan Mountains, as Jody describes it, and never returns. Later on in the day, Jody’s demeanor seems to change. It is best described by Steinbeck, who shows us the change in Jody’s nature that day
In the first novel, The Red Pony describes Jody Tiflin experiencing death for the first time. Steinbeck uses this adversity to show how Jody eventually comes of age by narrating his thoughts and feelings. The story begins at the home of Jody and his family, who lives on farm. Jody, like any child, has dreams and curiosities, but it involves the idea of death. By the end of the …show more content…
Gitano claims that he was born where Jody and his family currently reside. He asks Jody’s father to let him stay, and when Carl grants Gitano one night, Gitano tells Jody about his rapier. After their conversation, Jody leaves a bit curious about who Gitano really is. The next morning Gitano leaves with one of the family’s old horses and goes into the mysterious Gabilan Mountains, as Jody describes it, and never returns. Later on in the day, Jody’s demeanor seems to change. It is best described by Steinbeck, who shows us the change in Jody’s nature that day