Suffering in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses Essay

For example, Jody’s father mentioned, “‘Jody,’... ‘the buzzard didn’t kill the pony. Don’t you know that?” (36). This demonstrates that there is growing tension between Jody and his father because Jody’s father does not sympathize with Jody when he loses his pony. Also, the conflict between Jody and his father make the story enticing as the author demonstrates the constant struggles present in the father- son relationship. In addition, the author narrates, “Billy had failed again, and he felt badly about it. He had to cure the pony now” (25). This shows that Billy Buck had failed to keep his promise to keep the pony from getting sick, eventually leading to conflict between Jody and Billy. Also, the author utilizes conflicts to encourage the reader to think about what might happen between the characters involved, creating suspense. To sum up, the many enticing conflicts between Jody and other characters encourage the audience to continue reading by creating

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

Andy, who had the hope that he would escape, was able to adjust to life outside. He posed as Randall Stephens and used the laundered money to live his life. However for Red, life was not only difficult, but Red had become institutionalized like Brooks. For the past 40 years, Red had asked to use the bathroom, once he got out of prison those habits stuck with him. Red had difficulty leaving his prison life behind, versus Andy, who was able to live his life normally. Eventually, this lead to Red having thoughts of committing a crime to re-enter prison life. Red had never planned a life for when he got out of prison, because he never had the hope of getting out. Red struggled to find his place in society and felt he did not matter. This made life extremely difficult for Red and everyday felt like a burden. However, Red remembered the promise he made to Andy and decided to follow through on it. When Red crossed the border to meet up with his old friend Andy, he stated that he finally believed in hope. This shows how powerful hope can be and how it can change one’s perspective of

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.

During the summer of 1984, Calvin Johnson trudges knee deep through a swamp in the wetlands of South Georgia. As snakes brush past his legs, he marches in line with nine other men, each dressed in an orange jumpsuit, swinging a razor sharp bush axe in collective rhythm. His crew entered the swamp at dawn and they will not leave until dusk. Guards, armed with shotguns, and equally violent tempers, ignore the fact that the temperature has risen well above 100 degrees and push the men even harder. Suddenly, an orange blur falls to the ground and a prisoner from Wayne Correctional Institution lies face down in the swampy floor. As guards bark orders at the unconscious, dying man, Johnson realizes "the truth of the situation, and the force of

John is a unique character in this book, he acts out on what he wants. He never speaks much but he acts a lot, and for john his actions speak louder than words. Such as riding away from San Angelo into mexico. He rode with his friend Rawlins and they do not encounter much trouble, this is when they are truly living the life of the cowboys. For John this shows that he's ready for what's going to come at him. Heading out into mexico with no plan shows us that John is ready to embrace any future that hits him. Whether it hits him like a train or rolls by like a tumbleweed. John Grady will be ready for what comes his way no matter what.

It isn’t until other characters attempt to remind him of the reality that is around him that he truly begins to grasp the situation that his sense of morality has placed him in. Rawlins is one of the main opposing forces that try to influence the hold that John Grady’s idealism has over him. Even though Rawlins is his constant companion and friend he is not afraid to attempt to talk some sense into John Grady when he is being unreasonable. Between the two boys, John Grady seems to be the more fanatical of the two, openly participating in things that may get him trouble just for the sake of sticking to his moral code. There is a strong contrast between the values and morals that Rawlins holds within him and those that John Grady has for himself. Rather than view the world through idealist eyes such as John Grady does, Rawlins has a much better grip on reality. John Grady and Rawlin’s friendship is often put to the test, but ultimately they stick together for the sake of loyalty. This is evident when Rawlins says “I wouldn’t leave you and you wouldn’t leave me. That ain’t no argument (McCarthy, pg.79).” He is perfectly capable and willing to leave Blevins, but when it comes to John Grady he chooses to stand by his friend. Rawlins often puts himself in harm’s way in order to stay loyal to John Grady, compromising his beliefs about watching out for themselves,

The story starts out with Hitch, Law, and Rascal working under Charlie Waide on a cattle drive through Texas. The first conflict in the novel arises when ownership of a cow is in question between Rascal and a fellow cowboy. This small infraction ultimately sets the precedent of the story as the ownership of cattle becomes a problem that builds up to the main conflict. As the story progresses forward, Law is caught violating the cowboys’ set of unwritten laws as he tries to cheat other cattle owners out of cattle, an offense he would repeatedly make throughout the novel that leads to his death and would add fuel to the main conflict over cattle ownership.

The familiar west in which “he rode where he would always choose to ride” would soon change as his very way of life came under fire (McCarthy 5). The real woe lies in the helplessness John Grady is feeling. After speaking with his mother’s lawyer, he realizes the permanence of her decision. There simply “ain’t no changing her mind” (McCarthy 17). His mother is holding a proverbial trump card: John Grady is forced to fold.

Though John Grady follows this template in All the Pretty Horses, love is only one aspect of his rite of passage. Before leaving San Angelo, John Grady is seen unsure of himself and in a state of perpetual blankness like most teenagers, but also is unusually possessed by a search for meaning, for fulfillment. He searches the plot of his mother's play for divine significance, looks to the landscape for answers while riding with his father for the last time, and eventually leaves his hometown not to pursue a new destination, but rather on a quest for one, for some purpose to his life. In San Angelo, his life lent itself to a vacuous limbo; his mother neither offered him guidance nor ceded him control and his father is a beaten man on his last breaths, his last relationship with a girl ended apathetically. By the end of the novel, John Grady grows up in all the capacities of a true hero he has learned to be a father to Blevins, a lover to Alejandra, and a friend to Rawlins. Most importantly, he has lost his innocence without becoming disillusioned. At the end of the novel, he is a hardened hero, but also a wise one. His spirit is no longer defined by its emptiness but by its completeness; its synthesis of the moral and amoral, the serene and

The hard-working ranch father loved his son but also lived by a realist unlike his son, “Last chance son, you had better pick a horse that you have some hope of riding one day” (Harrison 500). Kenneth’s mother Nell was very supportive to her son’s dreams and hopes of owning a colt. An author of New York times Rebecca Mead states, “We see private bedroom conversations between Rob and Nell, in which the mother, who recognizes her son’s dreaminess as an admirable sensitivity, not as an irritating handicap, challenges her stubborn husband’s rulings”. This support for her son is shown when the little filly is injured and Ken’s mother makes a poultice for the injury every

After raiding the Snakes with High Back Bone his father bestowed a great honor to him, the name of his father, and his father before him, Crazy Horse. As his feats on the battlefield grew, so did his reputation and respect among the Lakota people. As Crazy Horse was raiding the Crows for nearly a month, the love of his heart was taken away from him by another. With his heart broken, it took a long time until he had gotten over it.

1.) Characters in the novel are John Grady, Lacey Rawlins, Belvins, Alejandra, Senor Rocha, Cole, Franklin, Captain and Perez. The most important characters throughout the novel are John Grady, Belvins, Rawlins, and Alejandra as they are the major characters.

While John Grady works on the ranch he falls in love with the owner’s daughter Alejandra and has a relationship with her. Rawlins, his cousin, warns him not to fall for her because in the end Rawlins and maybe John Grady knew that it would work out. He was an American working on the ranch vying for the affections of Alejandra, the rich daughter of the owner of the ranch. It was a relationship that was doomed to fail mostly because I think it faced oppositions from everyone. The father when he found out his daughter had slept with John Grady decided to go find him on the mesa and kill him. He even could stop loving his daughter, who didn’t think this was possible. Her grand aunt paid the prison where John Grady and Rawlins were

Survival is the key struggle in The Shawshank Redemption. This film takes place in the corrupt Shawshank State Penitentiary where mental and physical abuses inflicted upon prisoners are the hard realities of the system. For the prisoners of Shawshank, life is often bleak and violent. However, the will to survive is what keeps the characters motivated to retain their humanity and challenge the institutionalization of Shawshank. In particular, the film’s main protagonists, Andy Dufresne and Ellis “Red” Redding, exemplify the struggle for survival in the face of a corrupt, frightening, and oppressive prison system. In order to survive the harsh realities of the world, people adapt with personal traits like courage and resourcefulness in addition to forming community with other people.