Literary Commentary In 'All The Pretty Horses'

In All the Pretty Horses, John Grady Cole’s finds himself in a time where the physical frontier no longer exists. The absence of his frontier/meaning drives his continuous search for this nonexistent frontier. Upon setting his eyes on his goal, the cowboy life, John Grady Cole immediately sets off on his journey. As John Grady says to Rawlins before setting off to search for the cowboy life, “What the hell reason you got for stay in?... I 'm already gone” (McCarthy 27). John Grady immediately sets of on his search for life on the no longer existing frontier. He feels an innate urge as a frontiersman to go towards his frontier. As a frontiersman, he isn’t afraid to leave everything behind as he sets forwards on his journey. His frontier calls out from him a drive to search. However, by the end of the book, John Grady recognizes that the frontier he was looking for no longer exists. However, distraught and left empty, John Grady says to Rawlins "it aint my country," and that he no longer knows where "his country" is (McCarthy 299). Then John Grady rides of into the sunset presumably to

John Grady is not your average cowboy. All the Pretty Horses is not your typical coming-of-age story. This is an honest tale. Cormac McCarthy follows John Grady as he embarks on his journey of self-discovery across the border. Armed with a few pesos in his pocket, a strong horse and a friend at his side, John Grady thinks he’s ready to take on the Wild West of Mexico. At their final steps in America, a stranger, aged thirteen, joins our heroes. This unexpected variable named Blevins challenges John Grady, testing his character and pushing him to uncomfortable limits. The dynamic of their relationship reveals John Grady’s capacity to care for others as he shelters this kid from the hardships of reality and the

In All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy tells the tale of John Grady Cole’s quest to capture the ideal qualities of a cowboy as he sees them: laid-back, unfettered, nomadic and carefree attitudes. These qualities soon clash, however, with the reality of darkness, suffering and mystery that seems to follow him. Reality constantly subverts his ideal dream. Time and time again, John Grady Cole works to be this fantasy, but through reality’s constant rejection of his fantasy, he lives the dream.

The father knows how much the horses means to his son, so giving him this job shows that he does not actually want to have to kill them. In addition, the father takes the time to ask his son about the horses when he finds his son out on the fence, “What makes them run like that?” (125). He even goes as far to ask if his son would like to own one. The narrator is hesitant to answer, not sure if it a trick question or not. He answers truthfully, saying yes that he would like to own one. It is at this moment that we first see the fathers caring side. The father is showing an interest in what matters to his son.

The novel clearly reiterates the notion that more people conform than rebel when confronted with authoritarian control. The animals in the novel are divided into two categories. Those who have knowledge and therefore power, and those who lack knowledge and therefore are submissive. The main difference is that the submissive animals such as the horses and sheep represent the people that chose to stay uneducated, as it is a much less difficult pathway. They chose this because knowing consequences creates threatening actions against the livelihood of the animals. Despite the animals suffering from violence, poor conditions, and being overworked, they continue to conform as it becomes an easier lifestyle for them. The repetition of the lines “Napoleon is always right” and “I will work harder” showcases how the farm animals follow the routine of others and resign to conformity as their means of life, for it is an easier, simpler outlook to life for them. The idea of being an outlier and having a voice is forsaken by the animals, as the narrative evolves they witness more and more unruly acts of behaviour from the pigs, who are controlling the farm. The emotive language used within the line “Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn” effectively demonstrate how a wave of melancholic and frightened emotions flood through the farm animals, creating a sense of compliance within. The use of threatening tone within the lines “At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing

In his journey across the landscape of Mexico, John’s character in the novel begins to transform. He is beginning to move away from that boyish and naive kind of behavior and more towards the middle stage of between being a boy and a man; adolescence. McCarthy spends a great deal in describing John’s adolescent’s stage in this novel. Much of the time that McCarthy describes in this stage is when they are out on the prairie with the horses connecting with nature. This connection allows John to have and a clearer understanding that there is a divine line between men and horses and that you can’t apply the same characteristics that you would apply to a horse to a man.

Many authors use different styles of writing and different ways to show different things and different types points of views. In the articles The Georges and the Jewels and Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, the authors are both using first person point of view, but using different ways to reveal the character traits. First, In The Georges and the Jewels, the person telling the story is a little girl and also she is talking about her experiences with horses, whereas in Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, the article is being told by a horse, and the horse is telling about his life and about all the equipment that has to be used for him.

The scene of the novel, All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, was located in Mexico and Texas. The main character, John Grady Cole, overcomes many obstacles on his journey of discovery. This essay will explain how the two places differ, how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the book, and what each place represents.

Everyone has a different way to deal with overwhelming situations. It can be more difficult for people with mental illness to cope with the hardships of life. For instance, in “Horses of the Night,” the character of Chris has dissociative symptoms that can be linked to his depression. Margaret Laurence’s short story tells the story of Chris, a young teenager who moves to from a small farm to the town of Manawaka in order to go to high school. The story is told by his younger cousin, Vanessa. As she grows up, she learns that Chris is depressed. The author uses the theme of fantasy to show that he does not cope well with reality. The horses, Shallow Creek, and the children are symbols that show us the fantasy that Chris lives in.

One 's actions are first sparked by their goals and passions, but as they grow, outer forces invade those thoughts and make them clouded, their passions start to fade and eventually disappear. As children, we dream about what we want to be when we grow up. We have hope in our eyes, and nothing can hold us back. As we grow and learn, we are forced into realization of the harsh realities we live in, making our dreams sink. We must decide if we are going to let these forces knock us down, and conform to them, or stand strong and not take 'no ' for an answer. Margaret Laurence allows us to follow the development of Chris and how outer forces effect him in the short story "Horses of the Night".

In Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, the concept of understanding sacrifice to establish a greater moral good is central to the main characters and their developed values. Specifically, McCarthy incorporates a great sacrifice of young love made by John Crady Cole’s love interest, Alejandra. Alejandra strategically surrenders her promising relationship with John Grady in order to accomplish a greater agenda: bailing him out of jail therefore, assuring the forbiddance of their of their future union. In this instance, the sacrifice of love and union reveals the character’s deeper values rooted in moral obligation. This passionate act of love exemplifies Alejandra’s strength and selflessness, while also displaying a deeper understanding to the overall meaning of the book by highlighting how valuable friendships and relationships come at a great cost.

John Grady Cole, the last in a long line of west Texas ranchers, is, at sixteen, poised on the sorrowful, painful edge of manhood. When he realizes the only life he has ever known is disappearing into the past and that cowboys are as doomed as the Comanche who came before them, he leaves on a dangerous and harrowing journey into the beautiful and utterly foreign world that is Mexico. In the guise of a classic Western, All the Pretty Horses is at its heart a lyrical and elegiac coming-of-age story about love, friendship, and loyalty that will leave John Grady, and the reader, changed forever. When his mother decides to sell the cattle ranch he has grown up working, John Grady Cole and his friend Lacey Rawlins

The end of John Grady Cole’s life in Texas spurs a new life in Mexico. At the death of his grandfather’s life, all that John Grady has known is taken away from him. His mother’s decision to sell his grandfather’s property and his father’s willingness to let her do it puts John Grady in a place where he no longer knows where he stands. Accompanied by his best friend Lacey Rawlins, the two run off to Mexico to create a new life with the horses. The unexpected company of Jimmy Blevins turns their smooth journey into one that makes sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole into a man. Throughout All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy writes John’s coming of age transition, or Bildungsroman, as shown by the archetypes and blood motif and parallel structure.

In his essay, “Horse and Gentlemen,” T.H. Breen describes the cultural significance of gambling, specifically in relation to the quarter-horse races, in late 17th century Virginia. Breen primarily argues that the three main aspects of gambling – competitiveness, materialism, and individualism – reflected and reinforced the socio-economic structure of Virginia in this period. The high stakes wagers of the affluent planters reinforced their dominant status in the social structure and the gentry’s right to rule over this colony. Breen’s argument to this effect is supported by letters, court transcripts, documentation of wagers, and other written first-hand accounts. Breen’s case for the cultural significance of gambling has persuasive arguments for its representation of competitiveness and materialism. However, his argument for individualism has contrary elements and his essay would have been improved with the inclusion of women’s role in the gambling culture.

The first two Horsemen are Famine and Pestilence, who seem to work together to affect the people of France. Famine is created by the black horse that shows how it can come in any way either with food or products and the horsemen expresses this with a “pair of balances” that connects with “merchant trader” (Barnes 7). The black horse’s symbol is significant because of how it is not a weapon and can not hurt anyone, but the strength it has is with the resources the population will no longer have. With the lack of resources, it may lead to many things like anger between one another, which was what happened with the nobles and peasants. The peasants who were starved to death is an action of the black and pale horse and each “symbolized a great