young horse to Jody.

In the book's final section, although Grandfather is neither close to death nor in poor health, there is a sense that his life has lost its meaning. The most significant event of his life happened many years ago, and since then, he has been unable to move forward, remaining metaphorically stuck. Grandfather's situation symbolizes a different kind of death.

In this book, the theme of old age is intricately tied to the idea of death. Old age is portrayed as having minimal importance. For example, the aging horse, Easter, is retired to the pasture after a lifetime of hard work. Similarly, Gitano shares many similarities with Easter. He is old and has worked tirelessly for years. Now, he either cannot work or chooses not to, and he has decided to confront death. Although Billy believes that Gitano deserves rest and care, Carl is not willing to take on that responsibility. Carl shows more sympathy for his horse than for Gitano, whom he views as an outsider. Carl even suggests that it might be more merciful to euthanize his elderly horse than to let it endure the suffering of old age. Even though Gitano has family he could rely on, he chooses not to burden them. Instead, he decides to retreat into the mountains, possibly to end his life rather than depend on others.

In the final part of the book, Grandfather also faces the difficulties of old age. Carl's lack of empathy towards his father-in-law echoes his attitude towards Gitano. Carl becomes frustrated with Grandfather's repetitive stories, making him feel irrelevant and undervalued. Grandfather, feeling disconnected from the present, clings to his stories to relive a time when he felt significant. He once led many people to the West Coast, overcoming numerous challenges that he believes his son-in-law cannot understand. To him, modern life appears too simple. However, Grandfather feels too old for new adventures. He believes there are no new frontiers to explore, no new places to guide people to. For him, old age is more of a penalty than a reward for the experiences of his youth.

The interconnected themes of life and death are skillfully examined in the first three stories, paving the way for the concluding piece, "The Leader of the People." This final narrative concludes the series with another reflection on mortality and change. Jody's grandfather visits and shares his old tales of the grand wagon crossing. Carl Tiflin bluntly remarks that no one, except Jody, is truly interested in these recurring stories. Although the grandfather admits the truth in Carl's words, he later tells Jody that the stories themselves aren't the main point; it's the idea of "Westering." For the grandfather, "Westering" represents a force similar to the frontier, a core element of American identity. However, with the frontier's end, "Westering" has also come to an end. Westerners have been reduced to small landowners like Carl Tiflin and older cowboys like Billy Buck. Through his grandfather's insights, Jody discovers a sense of mature purpose, and by the story's conclusion, he, too, yearns to be a leader of the people.

In "The Promise," the third story, Jody gains insight into the fragile connection between life and death. To get his son an additional colt, Carl chooses to breed one of their mares. Unfortunately, complications occur during the birth, prompting Billy Buck to euthanize the mare in order to save the colt.

The principal theme of The Red Pony is the exploration of man’s complex relationship with nature, as presented through Jody’s education. For Steinbeck, all nature, including man, is bound together. The Red Pony is filled with descriptions of natural phenomena—weather, animals, and plants—reflecting and directing events in the story, as when the rainy season gives Jody an omen of doom and, later, exposure to the rain fatally sickens Gabilan, or when Grandfather compares Jody’s planned mouse hunt to the slaughter of the American Indians, showing how human mistreatment of the natural world parallels man’s mistreatment of his fellowmen. The unity of nature does not, however, preclude its harshness: The deaths of Gabilan and Nellie, the approaching death of Gitano, and Grandfather’s sense of failure show how nature ignores human desires. The titles “The Gift” and “The Promise” are ironic, for these stories reveal that nature makes no gifts and keeps no promises. Nor can even the wisest character in the stories, Billy Buck, alter this situation. Steinbeck is here in the naturalist tradition, which sees the world as indifferent to human notions of right and wrong.

Yet naturalism is only one side of Steinbeck’s vision. He also belongs to the Emersonian transcendentalist tradition, which sees nature as mysterious but nevertheless as a bounteous wellspring of hope. Death thus becomes an opportunity for new life, as when the dead body of Gabilan provides food for vultures or Nellie’s death allows her colt to be born. All life is seen as interdependent, as are human and animal life, for example, on the ranch. Billy is an expert horseman because he respects horses and is sensitive to their needs. The Tiflins teach Jody that it is wrong to hurt innocent animals. Grandfather recalls how he had to keep hungry pioneers from eating their team oxen. In each of these instances, natural and human life are seen as connected. This vision finds its highest expression in the idea of westering, in which the trek across the wilderness forges the pioneers into a single organism, an organism which embodies the human spirit. Westering also exhibits the violent side of nature in the slaughter of the American Indians, but it is the one way in which dreams can be fulfilled, for it is an educational process for the race, enabling it to attain full maturity just as the events of The Red Pony cause Jody to mature. Those characters who display the greatest wisdom, Gitano, Billy, and Grandfather, have all been involved in westering. They can accept personal failure and transcend it, the lesson which Steinbeck has Jody learn in the course of the story cycle.

Steinbeck’s symbolism and imagery reflect this union of man and nature. The mysterious mountains to the west of the ranch symbolize the inscrutability of nature, since no one except Gitano knows what lies beyond them. The mountains also represent the connectedness of life and death, since Gitano was born in the mountains and returns there to die. Significantly, he rides toward them on the horse Easter, suggesting a link with the Christian cycle of death and resurrection. Two other symbols are the water tub—which is constantly filled with water from a pipe so that it overflows and creates a permanent spot of green grass around itself—and the ugly black cypress tree near which pigs are slaughtered. These are analogues of the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge and represent the life-giving and destructive sides of nature, respectively. Jody regards the tub and the cypress as antithetical, but in Steinbeck’s vision they are both part of the natural order.