Romanticism In John Grady's All The Pretty Horses

Romanticism in All the Pretty Horses
To romanticize something is to make it seem better than it actually is and that is exactly what our protagonist John Grady Cole does through out the majority of the story, he romanticizes the cowboy way of life. As a result of this, he starts to see the cowboy life as a perfect means of escape from a his mundane life. John Grady is not the only person to have romantic views of the west. Many before him and after have added on to the cowboy mystique and allure. Even though John Grady tries to stay optimistic about life and hopeful that things will turn out better in the long run. He soon begins to realize that his view on the world has no real function in the real world.
John Grady not only romanticizes

the cowboy way of life, he seems to view everything in life through his rose-colored glasses of romanticism. His decision to leave the U.S. and head down to Mexico is not only because of his views of the cowboy life, it is also partly due to John Grady feeling that there is nothing left for him back home. The only thing he had wanted was the ranch so he could sort of live the cowboy life but that is taken from him. So now instead of a physical place to call home all he as is the overly sentimental attachment to that said cowboy lifestyle dream he had for the ranch. Going to Mexico to find this new “dream home” John Grady's way of taking control in his life ,something in which he had no control of before, especially when it came to his parents and to the ranch he had once called home . He carries his idealistic views of life with him into Mexico and when they reach the Hacienda de Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion, John Grady thinks he has found his utopia. That this is the place he had been searching for in his dreams and that this is somewhere he can have its all; a ranch to call home, horses and cows to tend to, and the perfect girl to love. Ultimately it is John Grady's romanticism that gets him and Rawlins in trouble, more specifically “it is the romantic pursuit of forbidden love that ends in John Grady's harrowing imprisonment” (SparkNotes Editors).
Our protagonist is neither the first nor the last person to think that by simply leaving his old life behind and staring a new one that things will get better, but like many before him, John Grady most likely bases his quixotic view of the cowboy lifestyle on not only stories, where he had either heard or read about the old cowboy ruled West, but also partly in his own imagination.

Although cowboys played a large role in the western United States most of the stories surrounding them are heavily steeped in myth and lure which only added to the overall grandeur of their image. This and the code that John Grady tries to live by seems to indicate that John Grady was idolizing a single cowboy or a particular cowboy but the idea of a cowboy, “The cowboy in various guises is popularly accepted by Americans as a symbol, indicative of this stature as myth” (Savage 3). All of this together may have contributed to John Grady's decision so pursue a cowboy

lifestyle.
Vaqueros and cowboys were after all alike in almost every way and that is probably why John Grady thought that Mexico was were he needed to be to for fill his cowboy dream. Vaqueros were as big in Mexico as they were in the U.S. though they seemed to have started first but then “Ranching ceased to be a strictly Hispanic profession as more Americans poured into once Mexican-held lands” ( and lasted a bit longer than their American counter parts. This might have been partly because of large haciendas were still hiring and needing vaqueros and there was not a lot of free gracing in the southern parts of Mexico so the introduction of the barbed wire fence did not have the same debilitating effect as it did in the U.S.
Even Mexican society played a role in the changing character of John Grady this is shown to us through Alfonsa.

At this period in time Mexican society and law were still trying to find its foothold in the aftermath of the Mexican revolution that had ended only a few years earlier and though the country now had a new president in office the country was still in a state of political unrest. Alfonsa who actually has gone through almost the exact same situation that John Grady and Alejandra are going through has no sympathy for John Grady and only cares about Alejandra's well being and that includes making sure that she (Alejandra) has a suitable husband. Alfonsa does not think John Grady is good enough for her niece , partly because of his both lack of social status and lack of means to support Alejandra, and because of the Aunt's own personal experience with her past

lover.
What happened at the prison(s), and whole ordeal of getting arrested in the first place, seemed to have helped push John Grady into a more realistic way of viewing his situation and his life. He did however hold on to some romantic ideals in hopes that they would be justified when he retrieved the American horses and returned to his beloved. Although that did not pan out as John Grady had hoped, we do get to see from this point on the inner change that has occurred with in the young rider. Change that did not seem to completely happen for him until Alejandra's refusal to leave with him. From then on the change is easy to see and is shown perfectly when John Grady cries for the first time in the story.