American Literature Themes

There are two American literature themes that I think are quite relevant to “All the Pretty Horses.”

First, the theme of innocence to awareness can be seen everywhere in American literature, including in this book. As I have discussed before, this book is a coming-to-age story. John Grady starts out knowing nothing about life but wanting to know more. You could easily say he was “innocent” at the beginning of the story. Throughout his journey, he encounters love, violence, and death. These encounters force him to grow up at the age of sixteen. He left home a boy, but he returns a man. Using the same quote before, Grady even realizes his loss of innocence when he says, “It was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all” (284). He didn’t know all the horrible things life could give him before he set out, but now he does. In the end of the book, John Grady Cole is a completely different person from the beginning. This idea of taking on a journey in which a person grows up and loses their innocence is very common in American Literature.

Another common theme in American Literature is the hero. In American Literature the “evil” this hero often fights is not typically a person or a thing; it is society as a whole. In “All the Pretty Horses” we can see this on an even larger scale: Individual vs. World. In the book, Grady fights the limitations, cruelty, and prejudice the world puts on him. He cannot have the one girl he loves. He is looked down upon for being a poor young boy. And lastly, he is treated very cruelly throughout the book, despite his tender age. He fights for his life, and it is against society that he is fighting. However, Grady seems to put himself against the world- and life itself- rather than society. “He imagined the pain of the world to be like some formless parasitic being seeking out the warmth of human souls” (256). To him, he isn’t fighting anything, but merely finding the truths of life. If it were society he was fighting, it could be changed. But you can’t change the way life is, at least in Grady’s eyes. And because this is how Grady views it, he is a tragic hero.

Symbols/Motifs

Blood

Blood is an important symbol and reoccurring element in “All the Pretty Horses”. Blood symbolizes the cost John Grady Cole pays for everything he loves. It also represents the world and helps to define the beauty it has, despite the contrast in violence and beauty. The tragedy of the world is what makes it beautiful. There are three things John Grady loves that he pays for in blood: Alejandra, horses, and his life.

“Drawing blood with her teeth where he held the heel of his hand against her mouth that she not cry out.”

Here, we see the image of blood. During their forbidden affair, John Grady is using his hand to make sure Alejandra keeps quiet while they are making love. They cannot get caught, and he knows that they must be quiet to be sure of this. In turn, Alejandra bites down on his hand to silence his passion. This causes him to bleed. This is a one example of how he paid for their love in blood.

“He looked down at his leg. His trousers were dark with blood and there was blood on the ground. He felt numb and strange but he felt no pain.”

This is right after John Grady has been shot when he is getting back Blevin’s horse at the end of the book. He has been shot and is bleeding excessively. He once again is paying for his love- this time of horses- with blood. He has become accustomed to this idea of getting hurt, and in turn, he no longer feels the pain.

“From the red buotonniere blossoming on the left pocket of his blue workshirt there spurted a thin fan of bright arterial blood.”

While Grady is in prison, he gets into a fight where he ends up killing another man. He is badly hurt and later regrets killing, but he did it to survive. In order to survive, Grady has to endure pain and blood. His pays for his survival in blood, once again.

Sunset

The sunset seems to show up when things are coming to an end. In the beginning of the book, after Grady’s grandfather dies and he is planning on leaving, we see the sunset. “The wind was much abated and it was very cold and the sun sat blood red and elliptic under the reefs of bloodred cloud before him.” This symbolizes the end of his childhood in his familiar home.

We once again see the sunset in the end: “There were few cattle in that country because it was a barren country indeed yet he came at evening upon a solitary bull rolling in the dust against the bloodred sunset like an animal in sacrificial torment.” This sunset symbolizes the end of his journey and all that he had fought for. He is done fighting for his love, and now he is going to start a new journey.

Religion

Religion is a reoccurring element throughout the book. God and his implications on the world are often discussed. These instances were very interesting, because they contrasted the usual simple meaningless dialogue the characters tended to have. Religion is important because it symbolizes not only the journey Grady is undertaking, but also his attempt to define life and the world around him.

Horses

Horses are very important in this book. They are what keep Grady going in life, and they also define him as a person. Grady connects horses with humans, often making horses superior to the human. "Finally he said that among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion." Grady wishes humans could be like horses.

Horses also tell us a lot out Grady as a character. “The horse had a good natural gait and as he rode he talked to it and told it things about the world that were true in his experience to see how they would sound if they were said. He told the horse why he liked it and why he’d chosen it to be his horse and he said that he would allow no harm to come to it.” Not only does this quote show us Grady’s love and passion for horses, but it shows us how he is lonely and alone in the world. He tells the horse his life story, because there is no person he trusts to tell it to. The horse is sacred to Grady, and we see this through his conversation, thoughts and dreams throughout the book.

Final Reaction

In the end of the book, John Grady Cole has nothing; He has lost his dad, his love, his innocence, and even his country. He doesn’t know who he is or what defines him. The end is actually quite depressing. “It was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all” (284). Here, we see that Cole is disappointed in what he found in the world. The pain and suffering he endured wasn’t worth it in the end.

However, there is a little hope, as I have discussed earlier. Using the same quote, “He remembered Alejandra and the sadness he'd first seen in the slope of her shoulders which he'd presumed to understand and of which he knew nothing and he felt a loneliness he'd not known since he was a child and he felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still. He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought the world's heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world's pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower,” We can see that Cole is still hopeful in that the world will someday show him it’s beauty. The last sentence of the book reads, “Passed and paled into the darkening land, the world to come.” The dark imagery in this sentence makes it feel depressing, but then it also hopeful in that Cole is once again facing this world that has given him such a hard time.

John Grady left his home as a lost boy, but he comes home not only as a man, but also as a hero. Cole took on a journey in which he lost his innocence along with other important things. What makes him a hero? John Grady had never been exposed to the Mexican violence he saw and took part in on his journey. He had never fallen in love. He had never been on his own. But John Grady did all of this when he left home, and he did it with pride. Only once did he cry in this story, and that was at the end when he realized his father was dead. He took all the world had to offer, even though most of it wasn't what he wanted or expected. And after all his troubles, he had the strength to go on and keep searching for the beauty in the world. This makes Cole a hero.

Image Study 4

“They rode out along the fenceline and across the open pasture-land. The leather creaked in the morning cold. They pushed the horses into a lope. The light fell away behind them. They rode out on the high prairie where they slowed the horses to a walk and the stars swarmed around them out of the blackness. They heard somewhere in that tenantless night a bell that tolled and ceased where no bell was and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing” (30).

This picture depicts the ‘ten thousand worlds for the choosing” perfectly. Cole can go anywhere, and all he needs is his horses. The horses are the only things that matter to him at the beginning of the book. However, this picture doesn’t focus on the horses. It focuses on the land-the endless land. Cole is searching for meaning of life, and this pictures shows how he has endless opportunities of where to go and what to do to find what he is looking for.

http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/books/

Image Study 3

“Lastly he said that he had seen the souls of horses and that it was a terrible thing to see. He said that it could be seen under certain circumstances attending the death of a horse because the horse shares a common soul and its seperate life only forms it out of all horses and makes it mortal. He said that if a person understood the sold of the horse then he would understand all horses that ever were" (111).

Horses are a huge focus in this book, as the title suggests. Cole sees horses as beautiful and simple, but meaningful. They have what he wishes humans had: truth. Throughout the book he often compares them to the human soul. I think this picture is a perfect representation of how horses are viewed in this book. Typically seen for their physical abilities, this picture instead focuses on the face of the horse. It is as if you are looking into its soul. You can see in the horse’s eyes that there is a story to tell. I think this image is important, because it characterizes the horse as more than just an animal, but something with a deeper meaning, as Cole views horses.

www.flickr.com/photos/ hughchal/2783858743/

Image Study 2

“He thought about Alejandra and he remembered her the first time he ever saw her passing along the cienaga road in the evening with the horse still wet from riding it in the lake” (282).

Alejandra is Grady’s obsession; everything he wants and strives for, but doesn’t get. He loves her passionately, and he often thinks of her in hard situations to calm himself down. Her free spirit and beauty leave Cole in awe. I think this pictures depicts the two things Grady loves most: the horse and Alejandra. Together, they are free and beautiful. This is what Grady pictures in his mind to get him through all the pain he finds in the world.

https://www.thestoeckleincollection.com/StoeckleinPrints.com/Stoeckleinprints/western/page5.html

Image Study 1

MRS. RUMFELT: My four images are split into four posts, please grade them all together as one. Thanks!

“He remembered Alejandra and the sadness he'd first seen in the slope of her shoulders which he'd presumed to understand and of which he knew nothing and he felt a loneliness he'd not known since he was a child and he felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still. He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought the world's heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world's pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower” (282).

I think an important theme of the book is that sometimes what we see is not always what actually is. By the end of the book, Cole is devastated at what he has found from the world. The disappointments, the simplicity, and the harsh reality of life was not what he expected- but he still has hope. He still sees the world as beautiful, despite how horrible it has been to him. In this quote, he is saying that beauty and pain are related, and that to see one is to see the other. All the violence and blood the world has, creates the image of a ‘single flower’, beautiful but with deeper meaning. This image of a flower symbolizes the one bit of hope the book leaves us with in the end: John Grady Cole might someday find beauty in the world, even though he has only been able to witness the pain so far.

http://www.zastavki.com/eng/Nature/Flowers/wallpaper-8372-2.htm

Character Analysis

John Grady Cole (often referred to as just Grady or Cole)
“He saw very clearly how all his life led only to this moment and all after led nowhere at all. He felt something cold and soulless enter him like another being and he imagined that it smiled malignly and he had no reason to believe that it would ever leave" (254).

John Grady Cole is a sixteen year old boy running away from home, hoping to find something, anything, to define his life elsewhere. With his grandfather dead and his mother selling the only home he has ever known, Grady leaves without looking back. Especially after the death of his father in the end, Cole feels no attachment to Texas or his family, and he says, “I have no country” (299). He has nothing left to define him, and this book depicts the struggle he has to find not only the meaning of life, but his place in it.

Almost nothing is said about Cole’s physical appearance, except that he is attractive and a “ladies man” as Rawlins said. We know that Cole believes there is a wrong and right in every situation and that he values the truth at whatever cost. He is very skilled with horses as people around him can notice almost immediately. “I hear you understand horses,” (120) Cole’s boss observes. He is in love with horses, and he contrasts the human soul to horses throughout the book. (See post on importance of horses)

Throughout the book, Cole is desperately looking for something. This something is not really defined, and it seems he doesn’t even know what it is. This is a coming-to- age story, with an almost depressing end. Cole grows up and learns that life is harsh and unexpected. It leaves you with nothing, and there is no greater meaning. Life is just life. He views the world as a constant let down by saying “Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting” (238).


Lacey Rawlins

Lacey Rawlins, Cole’s best friend, leaves home with Cole to venture into the west. Rawlins is very reasonable, trying to see the consequences of their actions ahead of time. He is usually right about his predictions of what will happen, but he never does anything to stop it. As someone on the ranch notices, Cole is the “leader of the two” (117). “I tried to reason with you, that’s all. Tried any number of times” (155), Rawlins says to Cole once they have been captured.

Rawlins is also very cautious and scared of the new surroundings. After Rawlins and Cole spend time in the prison, Rawlins is deeply affected. He cannot believe such horrible things exist in the world. Although he acts cold and cruel at times, he is deeply saddened by not only Blevin’s death, whom he has acted like he hated, but also random people at the prison. He says, “He died. When they carried him out there I thought how peculiar it would of seemed to him if he could of seen it. It did to me and it wasnt even me. Dying aint in peoples plans, is it?” (210) Rawlins often ponders about life and death and the meaning of it all. However, he is not ready to except the reality of life as Cole eventually does. Because of this, Rawlins returns home after they are freed from the prison.

Blevins

Jimmy Blevins is a thirteen year old boy who follows Cole and Rawlins on their journey. He is an interesting character, being that he is only thirteen, and he is on the run. One of the first things we see about Blevins is that he is an amazing shooter. He is able to shoot Rawlins’ wallet after it was thrown in midair. Another thing we learn about Blevins is that he doesn’t like to be made fun of. He bickers with Rawlins whenever Rawlins says something mean. When he falls out of his seat at dinner one night, he leaves the room saying, “I don’t like to be laughed at” (70). He is stubborn, and he spends the whole night and next morning hiding from those who saw his embarrassing moment.

Blevins is terrified of lightning. When a storm comes, Blevins takes all of his clothes off to avoid attracting the lightning, and he loses his horse. Because lightning killed his grandfather and uncle, he is scared it will “run in the family.” He defends his crazy reactions by saying, “You don’t know what it’s like” (89). His fears and actions demonstrate how young Blevins is.

After losing his horse, he is determined to find it or whoever found it. His stubborn, prideful, and courageous personality causes him to steal his horse back from a mexican man, claiming, “It ain’t his horse.” Blevins gets away, but he returns again to steal back his other things. This leads to his imprisonment and death. Blevin's innocent and scared age are again revealed when he is scared, repeatedly crying “What are they goin to do?” right before he is killed.

Alejandra

“Her black hair done up in a blue ribbon and the nape of her neck pale as porcelain" (123).

Being one of the only characters characterized with physical descriptions, Alejandra is seen as a beautiful, young, and fragile woman. Cole is absolutely in love with her. She too, likes horses, and Cole often envisions her riding them. Alejandra is rebellious, doing things merely because she shouldn’t or has been told not to. She sees Cole despite everybody telling her not too. She tells her dad, Cole’s boss, about their love affair, just to go against her aunt’s wishes. It is obvious she doesn’t really know who she is or whom she should listen to. Her true loyalty shows, however, when she leaves Cole in the end to go back to her father. Alejandra is not characterized much in the book, and we don’t see or hear from her as much as the other characters. Her sole purpose in the book is to be something that Cole so desperately wants- but can’t have.