My response to this story, I thought it was a very good story. It showed how if you give a person a good complement it can make them feel better about them, and maybe make them feel stronger. Elisa just thought of herself as a normal woman and house wife who works in the garden, but a tinker man came by, and told her how good she was at her job, and told her stories about his journey. I liked how Elisa started acting after she heard all these wonderful things, and her becoming stronger then what she already was. I liked how Steinbeck was able to get inside the mind of a woman, and her attitude, how it changes the rhythm of the story towards the end. But when she and her husband were going out on their date, and she saw the pot of chrysanthemums seeds poured out on the side of the road, and she started crying. You really got to feel her heart being broken. But the question in my mind was: Was her heart broken by the fact the tinker poured the seeds on the side of the road, or was her heart broken by the tinker himself?

The other story that I read by Steinbeck was, “The Leader of the People”. It’s one of the short stories that were featured in the books, “The Red Pony”. The story takes place on a small ranch in California. They are a normal down to earth family. The son Jody is 10, and he’s very normal and active 10-year-old. His dad runs the ranch, and his mom is a house wife, and there’s Billy Buck he’s the second help on the ranch. In the story Jody’s grandfather, his mom’s dad is coming for a visit. His father isn’t very happy about him coming. The reason is because his father-in-law only talks about is when he was on the Oregon Trail. (I think it’s the Oregon Trail because it started in the plains and ended at the coast, and it was all done by cover wagon, and oxen.) His wife tells him to, hush up about it, because it was the biggest thing in his life, and it seemed like he was born to do that, and when it was over he had nothing left, but the memories. He arrives and everything is going well and at dinner he talks about his times on the trail and after supper he is still talking about it. Carl the father kind of made some smart remarks at his father-in-law, and from this the grandfather realized he had been talking too much about the Oregon Trail, and decides he is going to talk less about it.

            My response to the story is a very positive one. I liked this story it had a good back bone of family morals and values. The grandfather is a good and positive character, and the story is centered on him, and his adventure, and him coming to realize that he does talk too much on his glory days and needs to give it a rest. If I were in his position I guess I would be talking about how I lead the people from the plains to the coast in oxen driven wagons. One thing I didn’t like in the story was the father, and how harsh he sounded towards his son and father-in-law. He makes a rude comment about how his son is nosey about what they got in the mail. And how he wishes his father-in-law was coming, and that all he talks about is him leading the people.  When the grandfather arrives, he is telling his same old stories, but his family really wasn’t listening, well maybe Jody was for some of it, and I think he was starting to catch on to that fact. He only realized it when Carl made his remark, and grandfather, got on that he should quite. My final response is to value family stories cause that’s where a lot of your family history comes from, and you should treasure it, but don’t always talk about it all the time, or you will drive people away.

My critical analysis of, “The Leader of People”. The theme of the story is family values. In the story the grandfather is coming to visit, and the father Carl is not happy because his father-in-law only talks about him leading the people from the plains to the coast in covered wagons. After a few smart remarks from his son-in-law he realizes this, and decides to cut down on his story telling of the Oregon Trail.

 The point of view is set in third person unlimited. In third person point of view they detailed how the mice ran out of the wet hay, and Jody running up to meet his grandfather, and how the setting is described, shows that the third person point of view is unlimited.

There is a problem in the story and it’s between Carl and his wife’s father. Her father really doesn’t have a problem with Carl the problem with Carl is he is so sick and tired of hearing the same stories over and over again. His wife tells him to pretty much hold his tongue, and let her father be. But Carl just can’t do that, and he makes her father realize his folly.

The climax and resolution to the story grandfather understands he talks to much about his old days, and that it does drive his family to boredom and it makes his son-in-law irritated. So he then decides to give it a rest, and focus on other things in life in the present instead of in the past, cause that was then and this was now.