The Role Of Exile In All The Pretty Horses

The basis of a story revolves around the journey of the Hero, which, through its trials, determines the outcome and reception of the narrative. An interesting form of journey, which always proves fundamental to a hero’s development, is exile, which transforms the story entirely. In various stories, different patterns of exile can affect the character positively or negatively. Famous cultural critic Edward Said has written that, “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted." Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching" experience. This quote directly applies to the novel All the Pretty Horses by

His exile’s curse is momentous, for it suffers him the greatest of pains — the cruel torture that only a heartbreak can afford. While cut off from his family, friends and homeland, Grady encounters Alejandra, his employer’s daughter. The two share a, somewhat, forbidden love affair. Love transforms John Grady as it is something that he has never experienced before. However he also clings to his love for Alejandra despite ignoring the outcome. Eventually as Grady begins to love Alejandra more and more, she is forced to reject him, due to her family’s wishes. Grady is crushed. His forbidden love — his only love — has left him with nothing. His exile has ripped from him his three greatest accomplishments. Alejandra leaves him, Blevins is executed and his friendship with Rawlins is corrupted as Rawlins leaves Grady and goes home to Texas. Grady romantically thought that Mexico would be his salvation, however, the frontier becomes his exile. As he rides back home, he becomes his exile’s victim and another figure in the desert; his and his horse’s shadows fuse into one lonely being, riding westwards onto