『붉은 망아지』에 나타난 조디의 성장과 양상

Abstract

The Red Pony is composed of four types of short fiction. The Red Pony focuses on the theme of initiation or how a child becomes a man. Steinbeck believed that facing death brings about the first adulthood of any man or woman, and in these stories he attempted to depict this painful process. Steinbeck himself was surrounded by impending death when he wrote the first of the four Red Pony stories. It was summer, 1933, and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, the author's mother, had recently suffered a massive illness. And he didn't know when she died. Later recalling this experience, the four tales constitute a buildingsroman which chronicles the autobiographical protagonist's path toward maturity. Steinbeck himself maintains the third-person point of view through all four stories. Critics almost invariably praise the four thematically linked stories which comprise The Red Pony: "The Gift"(1933), "The Great Mountains"(1933), "The Promise"(1937), and "The Leader of the People"(1936). First fiction, in "The Gift", Jody begins initiation. when he ascends the first time, he senses an uncertainty in the air, a feeling of change and of loss and of the gain of new and unfamiliar things. These premonitions foreshadow coming events. The Jody's developing awareness of death becomes an important stride toward his maturity. Even though his pony dies, Jody also experiences the wonders of new life. Jody himself has changed as a result of his pony's brief days on the Tiflin ranch. Finally, Jody's initiation into adulthood begins by his learning three important lessons: 1)human beings are deeply fallible, 2) nature is both uncaring and indifferent to the pain suffering of individuals that the universal law in which all of humanity must endure, is death, 3) nature's immutable unchanging law for all earthly creatures is death. Also, during his lovely pony together, he learns about responsibility. Second fiction, in "The Mountains", the theme of death continues. Jody contemplates the approaching demise of the venerable Indian, Gitano, and of the Tiflin's decrepit horse, Easter. Suggesting useless old age, Easter becomes an obvious parallel to Gitano. That lesson seems to be felt in Gitano, Easter, and the great mountains about the death. Jody grows as he contemplates the lesson he has learned from the mysterious old man. Third fiction, in "The Promise", deals with the cycle of life and death. A healthy colt has been born at the cost of the mare's life. Steinbeck suggests the interrelatedness of these two principles_death and life- with the black cypress and the green tub. Jody become aware that death and life are inseparably bound together. Also, Jody at least begins to recognize sex as a foundation of life. Fourth fiction, in "The Leader of the People", Jody's initiation, clearly the dominant theme in the previous Red Pony tales, must vie in "The Leader of the People" with this new element introduced by the grandfather: stories of an immense phalanx of humanity moving west, or as he puts it, westering. We know that in grandfather's generation westering is the crucial experience. And grandfather's stories about the crossing comprise another lesson in Jody's continuing initiation, exposing the boy to his ancestor's heroic tradition. Therefore it becomes evident that although a boy of only twelve- having not yet fully passed the rites of initiation into adulthood- there can be little doubts that I accepting the realities of death, loss, responsibility and compassion for others, that Jody has taken several fundamental steps towards the threshold of maturity.