Essay Questions

Using the psychoanalytic theory elucidate the essence of the ‘ringing triangle.’

John Steinbeck writes, “The high Jangling note of the triangle put the boy Jody in motion. He was only a little boy; ten years old…the triangle picked him up out of sleep. It didn’t occur to him to disobey the harsh note.” The triangle is an archetypical signal of classical conditioning. Jody would not disregard it because he is classically acclimatized to wake up once he distinguishes its sound.

Explicate the symbolic connotation of the red pony.

Steinbeck elucidates, “They (Jody’s boyfriend) swept by the house and cut across the stubble-field to the barn. And then they stood self-consciously before the pony, and then they looked at Jody with eyes in which there was a new admiration and a new respect. Before today Jody had been a boy, dressed in overalls and a blue shirt- Quieter than most, even suspected of being a little cowardly. And now he was different. Out of a thousand centuries they drew the ancient admiration of the footman for the horseman. They knew instinctively that man on a horse is spiritually as well as physically bigger than a man on foot.” Jody’s horse hoists his standing by making him superior to his comrades. The boys clinch that Jody will be supreme as a result of possessing and monitoring the horse.