The Horses in All the Pretty H

A detailed Summary of The Horses in All the Pretty H

In his novel, All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy presents us with a young man's journey through the regions of the unknown into adulthood. This novel, at once a western, a coming of age story, and a picturesque adventure, gives the story of John Grady Cole, the last in a long line of west Texas ranchers. As McCarthy moves through this tale, one finds that humans do not remain its sole motivators. As the title suggests, horses play an intricate part in the development of the storyline. In fact, the novel is centered around horses. Throughout, one finds the characters riding horses, rescuing horses, catching horses, breeding horses, talking about horses and even pondering their nature. The horses in All the Pretty Horses serve as the center around which the novel grows and depends.

McCarthy introduces John Grady Cole, 16, at his Grandfather's wake held at his family's small Texas ranch. In this first chapter, John finds that, despite numerous efforts on his part, his estranged mother intends to sell the family ranch that she has inherited from the grandfather. In addition, John's father, Cole, and his mother have recently divorced; thusly, Cole has given up any rights to the lan

All the Pretty Horses is a story of loss and adventure, a coming of age story. John discovers that, although he may wish to escape to the old world, that that world is indeed dying out. At the end of the book he rides into the sunset, "rider and horse passed on and their long shadows passed in tandem like the shadow of a single being." John Grady Cole and his horses are one in the same. One cannot separate the horse from its rider or from his dreams and his nature.

Horses provide a bond between the men of All the Pretty Horses. Don Hector and John spend hours in conversation concerning the attributes of different horses and have read some of the same books on horses. It is after one of these conversations that Don Hectors chooses to put John in charge of breeding his horses. The novel's horses also irrevocably tie the three boys together. Even after Blevins is shot to death by the police Captain, John continues on to find the rightful owner of Blevins' big bay horse. The way in which the boys, especially John, handled the horses at the estancia a reason for them to rise in esteem among the ranch's vaqueros. The horses connect the cowboys with the vaqueros, the old and the young, the Mexicans with the Americans.

Throughout the novel, one finds that the horses mean more to John and his friends than just the bonds that they have developed with them. Horses carry with them timeless meaning, ties to legends, romance, and battle. McCarthy uses the word "grail" near the beginning of the novel connecting the horses to the classic romance of the grand adventure that traces back in western culture to the crusades of Europe. The same ingredients found in these medieval stories arise in this novel; the brave knight, John Grady, rides off on his horse to far away lands to seek adventure and find some kind of treasure, in this case, to recapture a disappearing

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Approximate Word count = 1263
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels