Archive: All The Pretty Horses

"All the Pretty Horses" is a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy has written many novels, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Road." "All the Pretty Horses takes place in the late 1940s. The main character, John Grady Cole, decides to run away from Texas to Mexico with his best friend, Lacey Rawlins. Together they cross the border to go live thier dream of being cowboys, but life in Mexico is very unexpected. They work a short time on a ranch before getting in trouble with corrupt authorities. They struggle to escape and eventually make it back to Texas before their killed.





Plot Summary
“All the Pretty Horses” is a story about a sixteen year old John Grady Cole. He runs away to Mexico with his best friend Rawlins. On their way to the border they meet a boy name Jimmy Blevins. They all travel together and cross into Mexico. While they are travelling there is a thunderstorm. Blevins is very scared of thunderstorms and runs and hides. While he does this his horse and his gun are both lost. So they keep on travelling until they reach a town in which they find that Blevins’ horse and gun were stolen. They get chased out of town in an attempt to steal them back. Blevins is separated from John Grady and Rawlins. John Grady and Rawlins find work for Don Hector, the owner of a ranch. John Grady is very in tune with horses and Don Hector quickly puts him in charge of breeding the horses. But then John Grady and Rawlins get turned over to corrupt police for John Grady’s illicit affair with Don Hector’s daughter, Alejandra. They get thrown in prison in the town of Encantada and meet Blevins, who was in jail for killing one of the townspeople. The police torture Rawlins until he gives a false confession and execute Blevins. Grady and Rawlins are then taken to a larger much more violent prison. They refuse to ally with the influential prisoner, Perez. Angry at their refusal, he sends assassins to kill them. Rawlins fights off his attacker and is taken to the hospital wing to recover and Grady fights off his assassin until he kills him. They were both in critical conditoin. They are then released from prison due to Alejandra’s bribe to Alfonsa who paid the prison commander. Rawlins leaves John Grady to go back to Texas. Grday then goes back to the ranch to get his things and talks to Alfonsa. She admits to him that she made Alejandra promise to never speak to Grady again if she was to get him out of prison. John Grady meets up with Alejandra where they spend one last day together. He tries to get her to run off with him and get married but she realizes that she cannot chose him over her family. Heartbroken, John Grady decides to go back to Texas but won’t leave without his horses. So he goes to Encantada where he takes the guard captain hostage for his horses. He manages to get back to Texas to find his father dead, his ranch sold, and his best friend is very distant from him. The book ends with John Grady riding into the sunset.

Characters
John Grady Cole is the main character of the story. He's a smart, sixteen year old boy that runs away to Mexico with his best friend Lacey Rawlins. Rawlins is older, taller, and thinner than John Grady but he's not quite as smart when it comes to horses. On their way to Mexico they meet a thirteen year old boy named Jimmy Blevins. Jimmy is young but already in a lot of trouble. He's very sensitive to insult and humiliation, and doesn't always make the best choices. He's separated from the other two during a chase on horseback. A man whom they call Captain is the head "police" in the little town they steal Jimmy's horse back from and he also kills Jimmy close to the end. John Grady and Rawlins end up in a ranch where they work for Don Hector, the owner of the ranch. He's a very intelligible and kind person and loves horses with a passion. John Grady loves his daughter Alejandra with a passion. She has dark hair and blue eyes. She, like everyone else on the ranch is a horse person. She has a overprotective great aunt named Alfonsa. Alfonsa is old yet intuitive and was at one point described as a free thinker. John Grady and Rawlins wind up in jail where they meet the criminal Perez. Perez is cruel and influential. He is also quick to anger when things don't go his way.

Themes
One theme of this novel may be that the world is not what it seems. John Grady goes to Mexico with a very romanticized idea of what life will be like. When he gets there however he finds that life is not what it seems. It’s not a peaceful ranch life of herding horses. Instead it’s a life of danger and tragedy. Another theme of this story may be that in today’s society, money is power. This theme is represented by the bribes that take place in this book. It shows that whoever has money in above the law. It shows the corruption that wealth and power bring to people. One last them is that life changes. Before John Grady left to go to Mexico he had a father, ranch and a friend. When he comes back from his journey all these things are taken from him and he realizes that he has no home. It shows that all things are temporary and nothing lasts forever. The novel to me has a western/cowboy theme becuase no matter what he is going through or what happends to him a cowboy always gets back up and that attitude and perserverance is what the characters showed throughout the book.

Motifs
Sadness, death, stress all of wich are things that cuased john to runaway like he did.

Symbols
The first symbol I found is the crossing of the Rio Grande. It symbolizes the border between the life that they want to live and the life they left behind. More symbols are the horses. They represent the spirit of John Grady and how he wants to be free to roam and do as he pleases. Another symbol is Blevins’ gun. It symbolizes the violence of the Mexican world. It also serves as a symbol of greed and the possessiveness of people and how they cling to things. Another symbol is blood. It symbolizes the cost that John Grady pays for everything that he loves and that tragedy in the world is what makes it beautiful. The sunset is also a symbol, it represents things coming to an end.

Significant Quotes
1.	“Way the world is. Somebody can wake up and sneeze somewhere in Arkansas or some damn place and before you're done there's wars and ruination and all hell.” P. 92 This quote is Rawlins talking to John Grady about God. He believes that God looks out for people because if He didn’t then the world wouldn’t last two seconds before things went wrong. 2.	“Finally he said that among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion.” P. 111 This quote talks about how horses can be understood. But men on the other hand aren’t as simple and can’t be understood. It’s saying that men are complex and foolish. That men can’t be understood because of their bad traits, unlike horses, who don’t have any. 3.	“Beware gentle knight. There is no greater monster than reason.” P. 146 In this quote it talks about how reason can tear someone apart. That if things are thought about too much then it can be someone’s downfall. 4.	“The truth is what happened. It ain’t what come out of somebody's mouth.” P. 168 This states that despite corruption, the truth is the truth. No matter how much bribery goes into it, the truth isn’t manipulated. 5.	“Dying aint in people's plans, is it?” P. 210 This states that no one ever does anything with the intention of dying. If people knew they were going to die, unless under extreme circumstances, they would not endanger themselves. 6. "I can't back up and start over. I don't see the point in slobbering over it. And i cant see where it would make me feel better to be able to point a finger at someone else." P. 155 The quote is showing the integredy that John Grady has by him being honest and saying that.

Adaptations
"All the Pretty Horses" was originally written by Cormac McCarthy in 1992. Since then a different adaptation of this story has come around. "All the Pretty Horses" was made into a movie in the year 2000. I'mm not sure how good the movie is. I've never seen it. Overall it got a 5.8 out of 10 rating so I'm not sure if its worth your money to go rent. On the other hand, some people thought that is was amazing. Like I said, I haven't seen so I have don't have much of an opinion toward it, except for the fact that the main character is played by Matt Damon. Usually his movies are good so you may watch it just for that. The movie is the only other adaptation as far as I know.