SOURCE: French, Warren. “The Story Cycles.” In John Steinbeck's Fiction Revisited, pp. 44-59. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994.

In the following essay, French delineates the defining characteristics of the short-story cycles The Pastures of Heaven and The Red Pony.

John Steinbeck hit almost accidentally upon the technique that would lead him gradually away from the structural problems he had had with his earliest attempts to move from short stories to novels. The curious thing about this development is that when he did hit upon the technique, he did not immediately recognize its importance. As we approach the first masterworks of his mature years, we must consider what has been so much ignored, to the detriment of both his and his critics' reputations—that Steinbeck was not an intellectual in the sense of being primarily rational rather than emotional. He recognized that he had a lifelong suspicion of intellectuals, with...