Pony

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.

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.