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How Is The Language Used In All The Pretty Horses

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Grimly written, the opening scene of All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy depicts young John Grady hesitantly approaching the casket of his dead grandfather. The language of the scene is morbid and outright depressing. Although death is not written in the scene, there are many examples of language that describe death more accurate than a corpse ever could. John Grady begins walking, while the “floorboards creaked under his boots.” Even the floor is old and mistreated, close to not being able to function, evoking the sense of death. McCarthy writes, “the lilies leaned so palely,” filling the room with dead plants in addition to dead people. The diction used, such as, “cold hallway,” and, “dimly lit,” and, “the face so caved and drawn,”

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