preview

Summary Of Cormac Mccarthy's All The Pretty Horses

Good Essays

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. …show more content…

He leaves Texas for Mexico with naïve expectations. He believes that going to Mexico and living there will be easy. Lacey Rawlins on the other hand is the well-known sidekick who follows the main protagonist to the ends of the earth without hesitating loyalty. Rawlins tells John Grady, “I could understand if you was from Alabama you’d have ever reason in the world to run off to Texas. But if you’re already in Texas. I don’t know” (27). He, unlike John Grady, likes living in Texas and fears his father coming to get him to bring him back. In John Grady’s conversation with Don Hector, the man says to John “you are the leader” (114). John’s response that they are equals show their strong companionship. Though Blevins joined with them on their journey, he was never fully acknowledged by the both of them to be officially in their group. Blevins changes the tight dynamic between John Grady and Rawlins. Blevins is also a bit of a hero of his own. He is naïve and holds loyalty to John Grady and even Rawlins who does not hesitate to vocalize his dislike for their tagalong. Blevins acts as John Grady and Rawlin’s sacrificial lamb. By giving the captain fake names in his interrogation, his friends are cleared from the same sentence that he faces. His last act is giving John Grady “a wad of dirty and crumpled up peso notes” (177). This confirms how Blevins sees John Grady, as a …show more content…

John Grady pays for the things he feels passionate for and loves with his blood and those of others. The nights John Grady and Alejandra sleep together in the dead of the night she draws blood “with her teeth where he held the heel of his hand against her mouth that she not cry out” (142). The blood he bleeds is the love he holds for her. If they were to be careless and get caught, Alfonsa would surely kick him out of la Purisama and Don Hector would feel betrayed by the three of them with no warning. When Blevins’ reckless actions gives the captain no choice but to punish him. John Grady and Rawlins do not see Blevins die but they hear where the “pistol shot came from beyond the ebony trees” (178). Blevins’s death allows John Grady to continue his journey instead of having a similar fate. While at the prison John Grady purchases a knife for safety. A fight nearly kills John Grady as a “red boutonniere blossoming on the left pocket of his blue workshirt there spurted a thin fan of bright arterial blood” (201). Here he unwillingly pays for the experience of life with his own blood. The price for his life is that of

Get Access