John Steinbeck, an American author, is a Nobel Prize laureate. Many of Steinbeck's novels were set in Salinas, California where he was born. He is an author of many novels, non-fiction books, and collections of short stories. He died December 20th, 1968 at the age of 66 from heart disease and congestive heart failure. Connecting all four chapters of The Red Pony by John Steinbeck is the theme of loss. The Red Pony is a bildungsroman about a young boy named Jody.
In the first chapter of Jody receives a gift from his father. Jody's father, Carl Tiflin, gave Jody a red pony colt that came with reservations. Jody took good care of the horse and always made sure he did. One day the horse came down with an illness that made horse week. Billy Buck became a vet to the horse and took care of him. The pony became worse and eventually died. Jody had had his first feeling of loss.
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Gitano was looking for work to be able to live on the land that his ancestors lived. The Tiflin's were not able to afford housing and food and had to decline him working on the farm. The dream of living on the land where his ancestors died and where he wanted to be able to die as well ended. Gitano was walking the land for the last time he came upon the ruins of the mudhouse that he grew up in. This made him feel the loss of the lifelong dream.
In the third chapter, Jody's father gave him a second chance. Carl Tiflin gave Jody Nellie and five dollars to be able to breed her. After Nellie was finally bred Jody had to pay his father back the five dollars. He did by doing extra work around the farm. Nellie was giving birth to the foal Billy Buck realized that the foal was turned the wrong way. If it was not corrected Nellie and the foal would have died. Billy Buck had to kill Nellie to be able to do so. Jody had experienced the effect of loss and gain from a new