Comfort In Cormac Mccarthy's All The Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, takes place during the late 1940s. It is a story about a young man named John Grady Cole, a sixteen year old who is the last of a generation of the West Texas ranchers in his family. John Grady Cole takes a journey across the border to Mexico, after his grandfather's death, to retain his dream of living the cowboy life that he grew up with. As the story unfolds, John Gady Cole encounters a variety of obstacles that determines if his dreams are meant to be or if his fate will overpower his desires. McCarthy incorporates a variety of literary devices, internal conflict, and tone to achieve his theme of romanticism and reality.

I was in a car with my family driving on the freeway in Houston, and as I look out the car window I noticed that vegetation was growing on part of the freeway that was under construction. The freeway has been under construction for as long as I can remember and nature knew this because it set its roots here in order to survive. As I was looking out the window I started to think will they ever be done with this freeway. Many people think that America is the symbol of freedom and anyone can be who they want without being forced to do something they do not want.

The geographical setting in the novel All the Pretty Horses written by Cormac McCarthy can be tied to Thomas Foster's insights in chapter 19 of How to Read Literature like a Professor. In the chapter, Geography Matters…, it introduces geographical symbolism that is apparent in John Grady and Lacey Rawlins’ escapade in rural Mexico. Foster claims cardinal directions can symbolize behavior by stating “when writers send characters south, it’s so they can run amok” (pg. 173). In All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy creates chaos which burdens the boys as they head south. Before leaving America to work in Mexico, they tell a man that they are bank robbers.

All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, is set in Texas right outside of the Mexico border. The book opens with John Grady, a sixteen year old boy, attending his grandfather’s funeral. John Grady has grown up on his grandfather’s ranch, and now that he has died the mother is going to sell the unprofitable ranch. John’s parents are separated at this time, his mother longs for a better life off of the ranch while his father is a professional gambler. His father seems to have lung cancer, but this is not directly stated.

On November 30th, Joe ran away from his master, Thomas Bowyer. Joe is about forty-six years old, and around the height of 5 ’10. When speaking to this man he has a very smooth, and soft voice. When drinking liquor he becomes a very religious man. Bowyer says that he can read print very well, is a great liar, and can deceive anyone that does not know him.

Tommy sat in his Thunderbird, listening to the beat of jackhammers beating the Chicago sidewalks at noon. “Why is Al taking so long?” Tommy asked himself. Tommy got out of his car and got onto the sidewalk to enter Tso’s Food and Deli, walking through the restaurant he could smell the savory Gong Bao chicken.

Soldier’s Heart is a book about Charley Goddard, and how he develops Soldier’s Heart. Soldier’s Heart is what people who are afflicted with PTSD are said to have during the Civil War. Throughout the story, Charley gradually changes due to the battles during the war, until, in the end he has Soldier’s Heart. In the beginning Charley hears all about how the “The only shooting war to come in a man’s life, and if a man didn’t step right along he’d miss the whole thing.”

In the book slaughterhouse five, Billy Pilgrim mentions a character, Roland Weary. Weary was the most favorable person back home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact, he was unpopular because he was stupid, fat, mean and smelled like bacon “no matter how much he washed”(44). Which leads to Weary always ended up being ditched and him portraying his feelings in acts of violence. Seeing that Weary is repeatedly being rejected in his society and left alone, it contributes to him growing up repressed and in denial about what happened to him, which adds to his fear of abandonment, intimacy, and his low self-esteem.

Main characters of films and short stories are evolving tremendously, from their actions to their character traits. In the thriller short story “All the Kings Horses” by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character portrays himself as an excellent and intelligent individual. Reason being in the short story Kelly was placed in a really bad situation. However because of specific reasons; his actions, determination, and sacrifices he was able to get the result he wanted while being under so much pressure. Colonel Bryan Kelly, father of two and husband to one, had to play a life or death game of chess.

From my family, my parents, my sister and a few uncles are undocumented. The majority of my uncles got lucky when they came to the U.S. because when they came around the late or early 1980s they were granted residency. On the other hand, if my dad would have come earlier maybe he would have become a citizen as well. My dad came to the U.S. earlier than my mother and sister. When he got help and collected the money to crossed the border, all my uncles lived in the same apartment at South Gate.