Analysis Of All The Pretty Horses By Cormac Mccarthy

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is neither all about horses nor is it all pretty. Its sixteen-year-old protagonist, John Grady Cole, is on a dangerous and brutal quest for manhood after his childhood life falls apart. He leaves his home after his grandfather passes away, he discovers his father is close to death, and his absentee mother informs him that she is selling the family ranch to pursue a career in acting. He and his friend Lacey Rawlins travel across the plains toward Mexico and away from the troubles of their hometown in Texas. Cole, who has lost his parents and his lifestyle due to divorce and the loss of the ranch he grew up on, is on a search to hold on to the past and find meaning in his life in a quest for manhood.

The hardships of, “two teenagers fleeing the dying ranches of Texas in 1949 and journeying to Mexico,” (Hall) accelerate John's growth in maturity and

let him find the 'paradise' for which he is looking. When we meet him, he feels out of place, like he does not belong any more in the place of his grandfather. The world is changing, and he is not willing to accept it. After his grandfather’s funeral, he travels to see his mother in a theater production. He leaves disillusioned with his mother’s lifestyle. “John Grady Cole’s mother decides to sell the ranch and with this one thoroughly selfish gesture she has abrogated much of what John Grady Cole seems to represent, the life of cattle and horses, of simple work and simpler reward. She is, in his eyes, a woman of the new order and values which are not John’s values” (Blair). John and his father are also separated by his father's addiction to gambling and his divorce from John's mother He gives John advice, but it falls on deaf ears because John only wants to follow in the steps of his cowboy grandfather. John’s age helps explain his idealism and lack of maturity and understanding. He cannot be judged the same way we would judge someone older or someone with a more cohesive family. He is holding on to the past because he feels it is all he has.
One of his forgivable faults at the beginning of the novel is that when a problem arises, he runs from it instead of facing it as a man should. This is due again to entering into life at sixteen without parents guiding his steps. Being dealt difficulties and knowing how to handle them is a huge part of becoming a man. “John Cole’s soul begs for freedom, renewal, and escape. He recognizes he has reached the end of something and that it is already gone. The ending is where Cole’s dreams begin” (Spellman). His father is still suffering from his illness and addictions, and his mother is chasing her dreams. His running, then, is understandable. As the story progresses, John Grady begins to mature in these areas. Later in the story accusations of stealing a horse fall upon him, and instead of running from the law, he stands up and explains his story to a judge. “John Grady clears up his guilty feelings by going to the judge and confessing what really happened” (Arnold). The judge releases him, and he is able to keep the horse. He is taking responsibility for events that were beyond the control of a sixteen year old boy, but he still feels guilty about them.
He believes this trip will make him a man, and he has a high number of expectations that Rawlins probably cannot fathom. John leaves his hometown in Texas to travel across the plains to the borderlands that contain the Mexican and American border. He then finds that these places are unforgiving, when he comes upon a group of cacti while crossing the plains and sees that birds have impaled themselves on the spikes. At this point, he realizes he has entered a much harsher world (Blair). This moment symbolizes that the plains are a merciless and dangerous place. This moment also symbolizes John Grady’s first steps away from boyhood toward manhood. He is a young man on a mission who is willing to take chances in order to escape his mother and father. He is passionate in his quest. This passion will get him into trouble, but will also move him out of adolescence toward the manhood he desires. He is, “... a man come to the end of something” (Blair). Grady is not only attempting to find manhood; he is working just as hard to create an identity for himself that fits an ideal that he feels those around him have abandoned. He wants to stay around the pretty horses for the rest of his life. He has no doubts that he can make all of this happen. “What we may well believe has power to cut and shape and hollow out the dark form of the world surely if wind can, if rain can” (McCarthy 127).

He and Rawlins begin their adventure by heading south away from civilization as they know it. They do not travel like most people of the time, but rather are on horseback,which after the war was mostly replaced by the automobile. The cowboy still uses a horse, and John and Rawlins are drawn to this experience. They do not want to give in to modern times. They start out having a good time.They are carefree and do not see the troubles that can await them. Rawlins even mentions, “You know what? I could get used to this life” (McCarthy). Rawlins is not the idealist that John has already shown himself to be, and he does not have the character and conviction John embodies. When they meet Blevins, a younger boy who is their opposite because of his moral values, John is the good guy. Rawlins is on a road trip and does not want to be bothered with the younger boy, but John is not bothered by the change in plans because he cannot change who he is. If Blevins needs help, then John will give it. John's friendliness and humanity point to how his strengths will also lead to his suffering. It is not long into their relationship with Blevins that he begins to change the course of their life. Rawlins did not want anything to encroach on the adventure, but Grady could not leave the younger boy. This kindness does not go unpunished, but Grady would not weigh the possible bad against his better instincts.
Finally, John recognizes that the world is changing around him, but he is unwilling to give up the past that has comforted him. After World War II the modern world has begun to take over John's western world. The ranches and cowboys are disappearing. John Grady Cole’s love of horses show us the type of life he wants to lead. “What Cole loved of horses is what he loved of man, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them”(Lee). John Grady’s love of horses shows us that he envies the animals and their lifestyle. They roam the plains and adventure all their lives having only to worry about the bare essentials to live. At the end of every day, the horses can go to sleep and wake up as if they are starting over. “For Cole horses reflect his hunger for freedom. He repeatedly dreams of horses running toward their destiny just as he is” (Spellman). With his mother and father not supporting and raising him together, John wants to start over and forge his own identity that no one can take away. His journey changes and develops as he encounters hardships and obstacles. He cannot see the journey’s end in the beginning, but he is sure it will lead him to what he desires.
While, on the journey the boys cross a river into Mexico. Crossing the border river into a new country is a powerful symbol of the new start the boys seek. “For John Grady Cole, the border between Texas and Mexico is the line between childhood and its end” (Blair). They strip down nude to cross the river and are, in a sense, cleansed of their past as they pass into a new beginning. This is when they enter the setting where discovery and disaster are unleashed. The naked river crossing symbolizes how they are changing from the outside in. Soon after arriving in this new and unforgiving land, trouble begins to brew. Blevins is clearly the cause. He seems to be in the novel to force Grady and Rawlins from their original intent of seeking a cowboy paradise. After Blevins' gun and horse are stolen, the boys assist him, even though he is practically a stranger to them. They are starting to veer from their quest. At first they only thought about themselves, then they started helping other people. Rawlins actions are reluctant, but Grady is resolute that he will help Blevins. Their conversation about helping or abandoning Blevins illustrates the transformation they are already experiencing.
GRADY: Meanin just leave him?
RAWLINS: Yessir.
GRADY: You realize the fix he’s in?
RAWLINS: Yeah, I realize it. It’s the one he’s put hisself in.
GRADY: I can’t do it. (McCarthy)
John has already taken in the younger Blevins. He becomes his protector and recognizes the younger boy is not very well equipped for the journey they are on. Still, he will not abandon him.
Even though the attempt to get back Blevin’s horse ends in a disaster, they still have risked their lives to save him. After they are separated from Blevins, Grady and Rawlins end up on a ranch that seems to be the answer to their dreams of the old life as cowboys. They never get any closer than this to their ideal. Grady is in heaven and receives recognition for being superb at working on a ranch. He is close to nature, horses, and is finally independent. This job on the Mexican Hacienda is exactly what John is looking for. In this place he finds a connection with his own past and that of the men of his family. The tie to his past are the Pretty Horses. His work with horses is a fulfillment of his dreams. He sees the horses as a way to live out the lifestyle of the cowboy.
This work is also indicative of the manhood he idealizes. In John’s vision of the western lifestyle and the manliness it reflected, he was not ready for the call of another passion. “When he first arrives at the Mexican ranch, John Grady says he could stay there for a hundred years, but then everything changes” (Sickels). The hacienda owner’s daughter Alejandra rides into John’s view and his life takes another turn, as it did when he met Blevins. Blevins gave John a chance to show his character, but Alejandra brings his passion into view.
After arriving at the ranch, John meets and falls in love with Alejandra.

Through this relationship with the ranch owner’s beautiful daughter, one can see that John is a good-hearted person who can connect with and start feeling true love for someone. John’s feelings for Alejandra are quick and deep. He sees her beauty and desires her for himself. Even though he has found his dream job, John is quickly taken captive by another quest and without thinking it all through, is willing to risk his dream for a new one. He blindly falls for Alejandra and pursues her even after her father warns him that the pursuit is in vain. While the love John feels may be a rite of passage into manhood, like so many young men before him, John ignores the warnings and advice of those around him, which leads to a horrible consequence. John is growing into manhood, but the speed of this transition accelerates beyond John and Rawlin’s ability to control or enjoy it. He also “...mistakes her for wanting to ride the plains like him, but instead she is into the modern world, not the old like him”

(Sickels).
After Alejandra’s father discovers the affair between Alejandra and John, Alejandra’s father has John and Rawlins arrested and thrown into a harsh Mexican prison. A brutal episode in their journey begins, where just staying alive is in question. This is unlike any trial they could have even imagined. This prison experience changes them more than any other experience in the book. They are hit with evil. All of this is beyond their previous experience in the world of men, who have so far taken care of them. Incarceration for a made-up crime thrusts John and Rawlins into the company of evil men who have no care for their well-being. Rawlins is almost killed, and John learns from the powerful prisoner Perez how values are different in Mexico than Texas. He explains that in Mexico, evil still exists in ways John might not recognize from his life in Texas. Perez confuses survival and courage, telling John to be maybe even a little bit evil. Perez advises John that John’s strict moral code will probably get him killed in the prison.
John’s journey into manhood now includes fighting for his life and killing the man sent to kill him. The actual killing of the assassin seems to mark Grady’s final transition from boyhood to manhood. When he breaks the knife off in his attacker's heart, John breaks with his old self and becomes the man that he thought the trip would make him. It should be clear that John Grady never saw this path to manhood. He could not have imagined the brutality he would endure, but it changed him nonetheless. John and Rawlins' idealized journey has turned into a nightmare. “The violence in prison also functions as a means of establishing a masculine hierarchy. To prove their worth, Rawlins and John Grady must engage in daily battles with fellow inmates” (King). This nightmare, however, has awoken parts of John that only hardships can awake. He is no longer an innocent young man on a journey with horses. After their incarceration, Rawlins and John are no longer boys. Their horrifying experience has pushed their maturity to that of most adult men. Rawlins begins to think about their murdered companion Blevins, and at one point McCarthy describes Rawlins as wiser than before. John also has changed, and he knows what he has to do with his life.
John has become a man who must stand up for his life and for the convictions he holds. He is reckless in his new manhood, and he will not leave Mexico before righting some of the wrongs he and his friends have endured. All men dream of facing down giants in their life, but John Grady recklessly follows through with his quest and narrowly escapes with his life. He has suffered, but he makes those who caused Blevins' murder suffer as well and steals back both Blevins’ and Rawlins’ horses. In this quest for revenge and justice, Grady makes decisions that leave him feeling unsure of himself. He feels that he has righted some wrongs as a man should, but the violence necessary to accomplish this leaves him shaken. This part of the story, “... tells of John Grady’s fall from grace and attempt to justify himself” (Arnold).
John is not living the syrupy storyline of the perfect western hero who saves the day and rides away into the sunset with the girl. Alejandra makes it clear that although she has feelings for him, they cannot be together. This destroys John’s dream of the perfect romance on the plains, as well as some of his other dreams. This only serves to mature him further in ways he did not foresee. John cannot believe he was turned down by his first real love, but he seems a little less naive as he sets his gaze back to Texas. “McCarthy shows us John Grady’s failures, betrayals, and his misunderstanding rather than just his superior skills and innate decency” (Arnold). His journey back is not easy, but it allows him time to reflect on what he has endured. He still has people to face and giants to face down, but John is no longer the boy who left his home so many months before. He is not entirely sure of who he has become either.
John is searching for his place in the world as a man. He has not taken as tough a beating as Rawlins, who has retreated to his old life, but instead realizes that his current home is no longer a place for him to find the answers he seeks. John tells Rawlins, “It ain’t my country.” The trip to Mexico has erased his ties to his home. His father is dead, and the live-in maid who raised him has passed as well. “The final question for John Grady is whether that shape we see in our lives was there from the beginning or whether these random events are only a pattern after the fact” (Blair). John Grady sets his face west and begins a new chapter in his life. He does not know where it will take him, but it will be a clean break from the life he thought he had known before. His manhood has begun, and he is moving forward. It seems clear that Grady will be okay. He will keep searching until he finds the answers he seeks. He has not given up and will not start now. He has come into manhood, but this manhood is young and still needs tempering. John Grady does not give up.