Unveiling the Bittersweet Journey of Maturity in ‘The Red Pony

Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, especially as we grow older. People have illusions about everything, but as we mature we see what the real world looks like instead of seeing what we want to see and it isn't so pretty anymore. With maturity comes disillusionment, and most of the time the truth is bitter. This lesson is very well taught in "The Red Pony", an episodic novel by John Steinbeck about a boy named Jody and his life adventures. Maturity comes with a fraction of bitterness; as we grow older certain things in life start to seem unpleasant. Significant lessons about maturity and disillusionment in 'The Red Pony' are lessons about how cruel one can become as they mature and how bitter real life can be. Maturity isn't always nice, and I can relate to this lesson personally. Exploring one of the literary elements in the story can help provide a better understanding of the lesson within the theme.

The character of the main protagonist in 'The Red Pony", Jody relates to how cruel one can become as they mature. In Ch.2, Pg. 38 Jody uses a sling to aim and then shoot a stone at a bird. It is the first time ever that he manages to actually kill a bird by doing this. After that, Jody continues to tear the dead bird apart. He does not seem to care about the dead bird or it's life, all he cares about is his self and the shame he felt. This scene shows how cruel the character of Jody has become compared to the kind of boy he was back in chapter one. As he grows older, we learn that he is both round and dynamic.

Jody is round because on Pg. 38, Steinbeck mentions that Jody did feel a "mean pain” in his stomach, therefore we are aware of his conscience, yet he still chooses to kill anyway. There is more than one side to him. In this scene, Jody develops "face", and he is lying about his shame, whereas before he had simply covered up his actions without deciding to hide his sin. The boy is changing as he matures, and this makes him a dynamic character as well. Jody's character support the lesson within the theme, proving that sometimes, along with maturity comes cruelty too.

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Real life is bitter, this can be seen when Jody is full of a "nameless sorrow" after the old man, Gitano goes away to die. In Ch. 2, Pg. 53, we learn that the old man, Gitano steals an old horse, Easter and rides it away into the mountains. After that, Jody was engaged in a "nameless sorrow." The "nameless sorrow" has a name and it's called "bitterness." Many things bring upon this feeling, but mainly in this scene, it is the thought of Gitano about to face his own death that disturbed Jody the most. As Jody matures, he learns how bitter and resentful life can be, he sees how Gitano is ready for his death, and he knows Gitano will be having a lonely and sad death with no one there to console him but an old horse. Jody is still young, and he often does not know how to deal with these kinds of situations because there is nothing he can do but imprison that powerful feeling of bitterness inside him. It takes time, experience, and a lot nameless feelings to mature and learn how bitter life really is.

Maturity comes with a fraction of bitterness; I know this is true because I can relate this lesson to my life. Two years ago, I found out something I shouldn't have. One morning I got up early and went into my parent's bedroom, my mom was already out and I heard my dad's phone buzzed, so I took a look at it, and it was a text message from another girl. I won't go into detail about the content of the text, but it was bad. Up until that point, I had never felt so bad about my dad; he was always this picture perfect human to me. I learnt that it was disillusionment, and after all, he's only human and humans do stupid things and make stupid mistakes. I was the only one aware of his deception, and it was eating me up day-by-day, because I had to watch the people I love being lied to. At last, I had an upfront and open conversation with my dad then I grew up and got over it.

It wasn't an easy thing to do because a family might be the one and only true thing someone has. Truth is, I was clueless of what to do back then, and my perspective might change in the future but if the same thing were to happen today, I would definitely tell my mom about it because now and at this point in life, I think that is the right thing to do. I spent 13 years of my life believing that my parents were flawless, it was a bitter way to find out that they're not, but whether I liked it or not that day happened, and I took another step towards maturity.

With maturity comes disillusionment is one of the most important themes in ‘The Red Pony'; from this theme we can extract a compelling lesson of how maturity comes with a fraction of bitterness. Lessons in 'The Red Pony' are about how cruel a person can become as they mature and how real life can be bitter. I can also relate to this lesson personally because I too, have experienced the bitterness that comes with maturity. The character, Jody in the book has been through a lot, and as he matures he begins to understand life. Certain things that used to pleasant in his life turned out to become harder as he grows older. Sometimes in order to move on towards adulthood you have to let go of some beliefs and take on new ones. You have to know what to give and take, and that can be cruel and upsetting, but after all-- maturity comes with a fraction of bitterness.

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