Set in west Texas and northern central Mexico in l949, All the Pretty Horses is subtitled “Volume One, The Border Trilogy,” indicating that it is the first of three books in a series. The tale is about two young men, John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins, who run away from their hometown on their horses and ride across Texas and northeastern Mexico. They start near San Angelo, Texas, and travel approximately 130 miles to near Langtry, Texas, where they cross the Rio Grande River into Mexico. From there, they ride approximately 180 miles farther, to a well-situated hacienda, where they land jobs as cowboys. John Grady is identified by his mother as “only sixteen,” and we can assume that his good friend, Rawlins, is a similar age. Both boys are mature for their age and successfully negotiate their adventure south.
Structurally, All the Pretty Horses is quite simple. The story begins with the wake of John Grady Cole’s grandfather and takes us through the two friends’ adventures, from beginning to end, when they return to the San Angelo area from Mexico. In addition to telling the story of the boys’ adventure, McCarthy introduces a love story between John Grady and Alejandra, reminiscent of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
All the Pretty Horses is perhaps the most readable of McCarthy’s work. But the book’s accessibility should not lull the reader into thinking that this is a simple novel. To the contrary, the first 30 pages may require two readings in order for the reader to get into the story. McCarthy’s technique of introducing characters only as “he” or “she” and not naming them for several pages, if ever, can make the story difficult to follow and warns us not to assume that the characters are easy to understand. In the first mention of a character, we see the surface skin and perhaps a description or action; later, we learn the character’s name; and finally, the story unfolds. For example, we don’t learn John Grady’s name until the fifth page of the book. But it is the events of the entire book that fill in his character, and, even then, we must wait for the third book of the trilogy to get the complete picture of who John Grady is.
In the rich story of All the Pretty Horses, the variety of themes adds complexity and allows room for multiple interpretations. Loss of innocence and loss of the past are two parallel themes in the novel. The journey, or quest, theme is very important to the book (Cervantes’ Don Quixote, another story about a horseback journey of two men, is the only work of literature mentioned in the novel). After embarking on this journey, John Grady and Rawlins are no longer children. Similarly, with the passing of John Grady’s grandfather, the old West is also now lost.
Family relationships are another important motif in the novel. We learn of John Grady’s family and how they affect him and his future. John Grady’s mother left him in the care of the Mexican women when he was a baby and remained away from the ranch for a long period of time in his childhood. His father was away because of World War II, and, except for teaching him about horses, his relationship with his grandfather did not give him the nurturing he needed. Rawlins comes from a poorer family that he wants to escape, while Blevins, who is only about 13 years old, seems to have been on his own for a long time and has no family at all. All three of these boys (or young men, as they mature in the story) have suffered abandonment, psychologically and emotionally, if not actually. So they run away, to find fulfillment in the big world they imagine is waiting for them. Differing from these American families is the family history of the Rochas at La Purisima. The Rochas have lived with privilege. All have received excellent educational experiences and only suffer, if at all, from too much family interference, yet, the Rocha family has been molded by Spanish and European traditions as well as the Mexican Revolution. The aunt was educated in Europe, and Senor Rocha is well-read and knowledgeable about Spanish and European history. However, the Mexican Revolution, of 40 years earlier, has altered the hopes and dreams of family members. It has made the aunt cynical and controlling, Senor Rocha passive and withdrawn into his hobbies. This atmosphere makes Alejandra alienated from her family and adds to her attraction to John Grady, who is full of dreams and is a man of action and idealism. He seems like a hero, something the Rocha family has not known since the Mexican Revolution.
The jail scenes bring up the terrors of cruelty and the dark side of humans and can be compared to similar incarcerations in other great works of literature. Dostoevsky wrote about his own imprisonment in a classic memoir. Camus writes tellingly of jail in The Stranger, as does Sartre in “The Wall.” James Jones’ From Here to Eternity has a famous “in the brig” section, which details how to survive extreme incarceration. Native Son by Richard Wright is the famous novel of a young African American man caught and imprisoned.
Last, and most important, is the nature theme and the relationship between human beings and the earth. The horses play a central role in defining what McCarthy is saying about human existence. The horses may be eternal, just as Yeats’ swans in “The Wild Swans at Coole,” which return every year. Human life, especially human achievement, is transitory, ever changing. Nature survives and continues. Striving human beings, in contrast to Native Americans, for example, who accept the natural pattern of existence, are left to struggle, always hoping, but often left with only a sense of loss. Thus, the struggle, the adventure, the process is the only meaning for humans, because the successes, the material acquisitions are not permanent. John Grady’s attempts to get a life on a ranch or hacienda are doomed. But his relationship to horses, representing the earth and nature, is fulfilled. We last see him riding his horse, part of the landscape.
Influences on McCarthy’s work. The boys’ journey is filled with camping scenes reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway’s early Nick Adams tales, in which the joy of sleeping under the stars and drinking coffee around the campfire brings peace of mind and renewal. Other authors also influence McCarthy’s work. In particular, scholars have noted the great influence of William Faulkner in McCarthy’s work. His first novel, The Orchard Keeper, won the Faulkner prize for best first novel, and for his fourth novel, Suttree, McCarthy was critically acclaimed as the first novelist since World War II who could merit comparison to Faulkner.
In McCarthy’s writing, we hear the echoes of Faulkner’s unique language. It is the language of the South, of poetry, of the Bible, filled with images of legends and myths. McCarthy also shares much with Faulkner’s philosophy: the earth and simple people endure, and, after disaster, we will still hear the human voice, talking. In style, McCarthy is forming his own special voice. We hear the language of Faulkner, eloquent, but McCarthy’s is a new version, bilingual and western, without stream of consciousness.
