Pony

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 2

Parts 3-4

Parts 5-6

Parts 7-9

Part 10-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Prologue-Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue Summary: “From the Boneville Courier, April 27, 1858”

The local newspaper from the fictional town of Boneville, Ohio, recounts an event from two years before the novel’s main events. In this event, the protagonist, Silas Bird, was walking home when a storm hit. He took shelter under an oak tree, but lightning struck him and the tree. It seemed that Silas would die, but his father, Martin Bird, or Pa, saved him using a fireplace bellows. Silas recovered, but he now has a tree-shaped scar on his back.

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

An older version of Silas narrates the novel in the first person from several years in the future. Pa was always interested in photography, which was a new art form at the time. At first, he made a type of photograph called daguerreotypes, but these had a high overhead cost with a small profit margin. Pa turned to boot making to make money because although most people couldn’t afford luxuries like photographs, everyone needed boots. Pa’s boots featured secret compartments in his boots so that people could store small items such as pocketknives.

After lightning struck Silas, Pa renewed his interest in photography; he believed that the scar imprinted on Silas’s back was a result of the same chemical processes used in photography. Instead of daguerreotypes, Pa started using the collodion process to make irontypes. He soaked paper in iron and salt and then used sunlight to transfer an image from a glass negative onto the paper. Pa’s irontypes were cheaper than daguerreotypes, and people bought them more frequently, even traveling from afar to have Pa take their portraits.

Now, Pa is almost ready to quit boot making and devote himself full-time to photography, but one night when Silas is 12, three men visit Pa and disrupt his plans.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

Mittenwool, Silas’s teenage ghost companion, wakes him up one night to alert him that three horsemen are approaching with guns drawn. Nobody else can see Mittenwool, and Silas doesn’t know how the ghost is connected to him, but Mittenwool has been around ever since Silas can remember. The dog, Argos, barks, and Pa gets his gun, telling Silas to stay inside while he speaks to the men outside. Silas watches and listens through the window; the men have brought an extra horse and a pony with them.

The men—Rufe Jones and two twins named Seb and Eben Morton—claim that they have come peacefully on behalf of their boss, Roscoe Ollerenshaw. They think that Pa is someone called Mac Boat, but he denies this and says that his name is Martin Bird. They keep calling him Mac Boat anyway and say that Ollerenshaw has a business proposition for him. The men are supposed to bring Pa and Silas back to Ollerenshaw so that Pa can help with their business, but Pa doesn’t want to go. The men threaten to return with more men and more weapons if Pa doesn’t come peacefully now. Pa counters by threatening to involve the sheriff, but the men imply that because Pa is really Mac Boat, a wanted criminal, he has no way of involving law enforcement.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary

The men repeat that violence will ensue if Pa doesn’t come with them peacefully tonight. They claim that their business will only take a week, after which Pa can return home. Pa agrees to go with them if Silas can stay behind. The men agree, even though Ollerenshaw specifically told them to bring Silas as well. Pa instructs Silas to stay home while he is gone and leaves with the men, who are part of a counterfeiting ring, unbeknownst to Silas.

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Morning arrives. Silas has never heard of these men and doesn’t know why they want Pa’s help with business. He also doesn’t know why they think Pa’s name is Mac Boat, someone he has never heard of. Mittenwool tries to comfort Silas. Silas is sure that Mittenwool is real even though nobody else (including Pa) can see or hear him. Silas milks the cow and feeds the chickens and mule, and then notices that the men’s pony has reappeared in front of his house, alone.

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Silas wonders how and why the pony came back and believes that the pony’s return is a sign that he should go after Pa. Mittenwool thinks Silas should heed Pa’s orders to stay home. They compromise; they won’t chase all the way after Pa, but they’ll take Pony to the edge of the woods and see if there is any sign of Pa. Then, they’ll come home before dark.

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary

Silas remembers being born and recalls his mother, who he calls Mama, dying in childbirth. He thinks about Mama as he rides Pony toward the woods. Before leaving the house that day, he took Mama’s violin, along with practical supplies like food, water, and a knife. Although he doesn’t know why he has taken the violin, he will surmise years later that he knew he would never be returning home and that he wanted something by which to remember his mother.

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary

In the narrative present, Mittenwool and Argos walk alongside Silas and Pony, but Argos gets tired and heads home. Silas regrets not accompanying Pa to the woods to hunt or dig for salt more often. He went hunting with Pa once but was so scared of something he saw and heard that he fainted. Pa said it was probably a bear, but after that day, Silas never returned to the woods—not until today.

Everyone thinks that Pa is a genius, and Silas wonders if this is why the men took him. Because Pa got a patent for his irontype photography, Silas theorizes that the men want Pa to take photographs for their business. Even though Pa is a genius, he has not yet had the opportunity to reach his full potential because he grew up working class and his parents died when he was 10. Also, Pa doesn’t care about becoming rich; when Mama was alive, he only cared about creating wonderful inventions for her, such as an ice machine and lightbulbs.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary

Now, Silas reaches the edge of the woods and calls for Pa, but he hears no answer and sees no sign of him or the other men. It rained overnight, so no footprints are visible. It is now nearly dusk, and Mittenwool wants to go home, but Silas keeps looking around. The edges of the woods are so dense that there’s not an obvious point of entry until Pony finds one.

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary

From the grasping branches of the trees, Silas’s face is now half-red with blood. He, Pony, and Mittenwool enter the thicket despite Mittenwool’s hesitation. Pony seems to know where he is going. Deeper in the woods, Silas starts to hear voices, just like he did last time. Pony seems to hear them too and gallops off with Silas still riding him. They go so far that they get lost and lose Mittenwool. Mittenwool sometimes disappears for up to a day, but right now, Silas feels scared without him and realizes that it might be possible to lose Mittenwool for good.

Silas and Pony reach a clearing and encounter an older man named Enoch Farmer. Although Farmer is also a ghost, nobody knows this yet, including Farmer himself. Farmer realizes that Silas is a lost child searching for his father and invites him back to the safety of his camp.

Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary

Silas helps Farmer gather firewood, and then they return to his camp. Silas shares his matches, and Farmer teaches him how to build a fire. They cook some of Silas’s food, which the boy offers to share, but Farmer is not hungry. Silas explains that he is searching for his Pa and the men who took him away, but he won’t explain who Mittenwool is, even though Farmer heard him calling for Mittenwool. Silas never tells people about Mittenwool anymore because they never react well.

Farmer is a US Marshal who is searching for outlaws nearby. Silas asks if the outlaws are Rufe Jones and Seb and Eben Morton, but Farmer has not heard of these men. However, he has heard of Mac Boat, who is one of the most infamous counterfeiters, but nobody has seen or heard from Mac Boat in years. Silas is convinced that the men who took Pa are connected to the men that Farmer is pursuing.

Prologue-Part 2 Analysis

The Prologue establishes the novel’s tone and introduces the symbolism of lightning; when a flash of lightning imprints a tree-shaped scar on Silas’s back, the occurrence seems almost magical but is actually a verified scientific phenomenon. The incident therefore emphasizes The Tangible Effects of the Supernatural and foreshadows the novel’s frequent use of elements of magical realism. Significantly, the scar is referred to as a “wondrous curiosity of science” (2), which complicates the distinction between the real and the supernatural, blurring the boundaries between these two categories. Throughout the text, the author employs a whimsical yet pensive tone surrounding this theme, and the Prologue is likewise designed to hint at the novel’s numerous strange events and coincidences. Additionally, because the Prologue consists of a newspaper clipping, the date of the article—April 27, 1858—unobtrusively establishes the fact that the story begins in the years immediately preceding the Civil War. The date is also significant because it links the Prologue with the newspaper article about Silas that makes up the Epilogue, which will also be dated April 27, several years later.

The photographs at the beginning of each part obliquely refer to significant events within the novel itself, and they also imbue the text with a degree of verisimilitude, especially given that the author collected these old photographs herself; as she explains in her Afterword, she does not know who the photographs depict, but they are included to lend the story a sense of mystery and wonder. In the photograph featured at the beginning of Part 1, a man and a baby are featured, with no woman present. This image suggests a father and son who have only each other after the mother’s death; the implied family structure and history are meant to mirror Silas’s actual situation. The next photograph features an older boy who is not yet a teenager and depicts Silas’s general age and appearance during the main events of the novel. These black-and-white, grainy photographs also emphasize the novel’s setting in the mid-19th century, signaling that these photographs—and, by extension, the story itself—are historical rather than modern.

This section also cements the novel in the genre of magic realism by combining historically accurate settings, events, and characters with supernatural elements such as ghosts. Since the novel is narrated retrospectively by an older, wiser version of Silas who describes the ghosts as if they are real, the narrative itself creates a world in which the presence of ghosts must simply be accepted with equanimity, not interpreted as figments of Silas’s imagination. The seamless blend of real and supernatural elements consistently challenges the usual distinction between these two categories, raising the question of whether such a distinction exists after all. Furthermore, the inclusion of magical or supernatural elements sheds light on the strangeness of many widely accepted elements such as love, death, memory, science, intuition, and coincidence. For example, when Silas takes his mother’s violin on his trek to find Pa, the retrospective narrator reflects that perhaps he intuited that he was leaving home for the last time; this comment raises the question of whether there is a difference between intuition and psychic abilities. Also, when Pony finds his way back to Silas, discovers the entry point to the woods, and leads Silas to Marshal Enoch Farmer, these events further complicate the difference between the real and the supernatural because the pony exhibits extremely keen intuition that has a direct effect on the protagonist’s decisions and experiences in the moment. Ultimately, however, the novel focuses less on examining the boundary between the real and the supernatural and instead illustrates the idea that experiences such as love and loss can be even stranger and more mysterious than phenomena such as ghosts.

The Impact of Love and Loss is quickly established as the narrative reveals Pa to be a responsible, loving, and creative father and then immediately deprives the protagonist of his guiding presence. This occurrence is further complicated by the hints of Pa’s dark past, as the arrival of the men calls Pa’s character into question by raising the possibility that he may really be Mac Boat, a notorious counterfeiter. The possibility that Silas’s father might have a secret identity seems much stranger to Silas than the fact that ghosts exist, and this implied philosophical backdrop further complicates the difference between the real and the supernatural. At this point, Silas still insists that Pa is not Mac Boat and that the outlaws who took Pa were mistaken, but Pa’s refusal to go to the police about the outlaws suggests that he is or was who the men claim him to be.

The realization of Pa’s possible double identity complicates Silas’s view of the world and catapults him into The Journey of Self-Discovery and Personal Growth that will change his life forever. Thus, Silas’s physical journey into the woods to find Pa symbolizes his emotional journey, and as Silas physically leaves the home of his childhood, he emotionally departs from a fully childish perspective and enters the turbulent limbo of adolescence. Significantly, the terrain mirrors this transition; just as the process of self-discovery and growth can be confusing, full of false leads, and easy to get lost in, the woods themselves become impenetrable, dark, and difficult to navigate. The woods also hold unknown dangers and mysteries, just as self-discovery and adolescence can be full of frightening and treacherous new hardships. Despite this intense moment of change, however, Silas continues through the woods because he feels he “must” find his Pa, just like he must make the transition from childhood to adolescence even if it proves to be difficult and uncomfortable.