Humans who are not parents find this sort of calming a all the pretty horses essay with children so to see John performs this act shows a sort of understanding and knowledge of the beast. John Grady is depicted as having very little social skills with humans, and his belief that men must be the same as horses is an example of this. This is part of the mythical west that John believes is still attainable and he strikes out to find in Mexico. Free Essays Topics Essay Checker Hire Writer Login. All the Pretty Horses Essay Example. Wallach, all the pretty horses essay, Rick. The Cole family made their name in cattle ranching for almost a century, but is now facing a financial crisis due to an increase of industrialization.
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Horses and cowboys have, in many ways, changed the history of the West. In fact, horses have played a major role in the evolution of civilization. From Alexander the Great conquering Macedonian horsemen, to Genghis Khan, to Napoleon, horses have always played an integral part of history. He himself is a modern all the pretty horses essay of the mythical horsemen that have circled the imagination of all young boys for centuries. John Grady was born a horseman and has the soul of a horseman. All his life John Grady Cole grew up around and with horses. His life as it seems revolved around the presence of horses and they became an important part of his own existence. McCarthy presents horses as free spirits, untamed, passionate and strong.
They almost take on a divine notion. Growing up on his grandfathers ranch, John would sit and listen to stories the ranch hands would tell about the open west, Mexico, and the vaqueros. He was exposed to the beliefs and passion that these horsemen had for horses and the value they placed on the majestic animals. In the title All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy attempts to signify an importance of the effects of horses on the main character John Grady Cole. In the opening chapters of the novel, horses are presented to the reader as a form of economic means and transportation for John Grady and his best friend Lacey Rawlins.
A modern comparison could be an automobile. It takes one to and from work and thus provides a means for economic growth. The author also seems, however, to describe another side to the animals. One which all the pretty horses essay their spirit, a spirit which is not that different from mans. It almost seems that he has been born with this gift, an all the pretty horses essay gift from God. This gift, however, seems not to work as well with humans. Throughout the story, John is forced to confront his shortcomings with humans and rethink what he thought he knew about horses and humans and the relationships between the two.
The romantic and mythical world he has been living in shows its true self and shatters his beliefs in it. The title, it seems, is an ironic twist to what John experiences throughout the novel. The all the pretty horses essay world he believed in at the beginning and the very opposite that emerges at the end. In the beautiful world he lives in, horses are passionate, strong, and free. Not unlike the vaqueros previously mentioned, John Grady worships horses not only for the various everyday roles they play in his life, but he truly sees them as a companion and a means for an escape from the ordinary world to the preferred one in his dreams.
In this passage one could argue that in the wild and spirited horse, John sees himself. He himself yearns to be free and answer to no one. This is part of the mythical west that John believes is still attainable and he strikes out to find in Mexico. All through the novel, McCarthy uses very romantic and charged diction to connect humans and horses and to describe that connection. By being reverent and respectful in his description of horses, he masterfully paints a touching picture of the horse. McCarthy shows his love and admiration for horses with this passage at the beginning of the story. The words he uses are passionate and have strength. These later images are again powerful and resonate in the mind. It is easy to see how with all these striking images that this novel was made into a motion picture.
These words are very descriptive and easily convey vivid imagery in ones brain. As you read the words you can without difficulty see the words take shape into beautiful pictures. They become almost unreal and aid in portraying the horses as mystical. These are the thoughts and pictures John Grady sees in his mind and these are the type of horses that the title of the book so elegantly describes. The spiritual connection that we see John have with horses is just as mythical as the horses the author describes. John Grady is able somehow to communicate with these horses better than he can communicate with humans.
The emotions and words he is able to share with horses are much deeper than with any other person he encounters in the novel. When John Grady and his best friend Lacey begin to start breaking horses on the Mexican ranch, this notion of deeper communication becomes more evident. Humans who are not parents find this sort of calming a challenge with children all the pretty horses essay to see John performs this act shows a sort of understanding and knowledge of all the pretty horses essay beast. The words used in this passage gives the reader a sense that the relationship that is shared by horses and John Grady is more than a physical one, but a metaphysical relationship that keeps being strengthened as the story unfolds.
The message that McCarthy seems to be sending in these passages is that John has this ability to know all horses souls and that this makes him a very unique person, unique just like the horse that he share the relationship with. The relationships that John Grady knew and shared with horses would later prove not one to be trusted to be used with men. As the story continues, it becomes evident to John that the all the pretty horses essay entities are very much different. His belief that horses are this way makes him believe that humans must also be this way. John Grady is depicted as having very little social skills with humans, all the pretty horses essay, and his belief that men must be the same as horses is an example of this.
The quest that he is to undertake is something that he thinks will be romantic and will somehow change his perception of the world. This would be the first, but not the last, time that John begins to realize that there is a difference between the two species. John finds along his journey that instead of the pretty horses that the title implies, the only thing he all the pretty horses essay finds in the world his pain, both physical and emotional. The beauty and wonder that the journey seemed to hold only resulted in theft, murder, lies, and betrayal.
Nothing for their struggles, nothing for their names. The new and lost events and memories show the irony in the title of the novel. One would not think of these types of events happening with a title such as this. At the end of the book the reader also comes to realize that the title of the book is not ever meant to be taken literally. At the beginning of his journey, John fully believes in the imaginary world that the title suggests. By the time his journey to Mexico concludes, however, he realizes that the world is not as simple and innocent as he once thought it to be. He is disheartened at the idea that men do not live in a similar world to horses and it is not carefree and romantic.
His unusual understanding of the spirit and thoughts of horses had made him think that it must be the same with that of men. John learns by the end of the story that this is certainly not the case and men could never be the equal to the spiritual horse. John Grady learns that men are a violent, cruel, and unpredictable species and not at all like horses. Dapples and greys, Pintos and bays, Coach and six little horses. This quote depicts the novel perfectly, all the pretty horses essay, in my estimation. This novel on the surface can seem to be just another western tale, all the pretty horses essay, the cowboy and his horse riding out on the plains on some sort of quest.
I believe this novel goes a little deeper and touches our souls and leaves a lasting imprint of love, pain, suffering, and an invincible spirit that survives in man. Wallach, Rick. Myth, Legend, Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy, all the pretty horses essay. Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, all the pretty horses essay, Toggle navigation Menu. Literature Study Guides Quotes Humanities Philosophy Biography Dictionary Business Essays Hire Writer Log in. Just Great DataBase Essays All the Pretty Horses - a Comparative Study. All the Pretty Horses - a Comparative Study. Haven't Found an Essay You Want? Get Your Custom Essay Sample. Author: Cody Owens.
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The result is recognition of the parallel between open terrain and his character, each one exemplifying one another and in the end explains the enlightenment he struggles for. Right out of the gate McCarthy shines light on the theme of personal constraint contingent on the landscape. Right away the reader is informed of his feelings of being trapped and contained. The symbolism here is that of a character whose energy and aspirations for western lifestyle are being confined to a location that is changing and slowly vanishing. This fact is ultimately disheartening, particularly for a character that is symbolized as a flame that burns with exuberance. The Cole family made their name in cattle ranching for almost a century, but is now facing a financial crisis due to an increase of industrialization.
Even though John Grady is most content in a rural setting and on the family ranch, it opens his eyes to the mortality of the place; the death of his grandfather corresponds with the subsequent death of his agrarian way of life. The ranching lifestyle and the attractions it had were creeping toward a mechanized extinction. The train symbolizes something tremendously modern invading his home, from the more populated and developed east. McCarthy portrays the train as an unstoppable foreign force imposing its self on an old way of life.
The event cements the death of the place for John Grady. He concludes that trying to gain possession of the ranch and confronting the juggernaut of modernism is beyond his abilities and he stands no chance. John Grady and Rawlins decision to explore the untamed expanse to south of their birthplace brings a succession of experiences that transform John Grady and forms a recognizable coming of age tale. The core of this coming of age narrative moves along and mirrors the advancement of setting. When John Grady and his friend Jimmy Rawlins first depart for Mexico they ride an idyllic stretch in which they encounter no problems or violence.
They partake on this romantic journey to Mexico flawlessly, which conforms exactly to their expectations. which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them. Their aim is to act like the men who fill their idealized imaginings, men not of leisure but of serious purpose, perseverance, and models of healthy masculinity with the world at their fingertips. Little did they know the Mexican landscape they trekked across would become unforgiving and gradually more demanding.
These changes can be associated as learning experiences typically linked to a coming of age story. A storm begins to build up that literally and iguratively rains on their idyllic beginning and is a prelude for what is to come. That night John Grady and Rawlins become heavily intoxicated for what seemed like their first time, their subsequent sickness is described against a significantly in a much less ideal place. They pulled the wet saddles off the horses and hobbled them and walked off in separate directions…clutching their knees vomiting. After finding work for a Mexican ranch hand the boys briefly feel stable and out of a state of transiency.
However, after some time passes Mexican guards whisk the boys away after they are being charged with having ties to a murder committed by their old riding buddy Jimmy Blevins. The horse, which was the social foundation of Western American The post-World War II boom that informs today's world has no place in Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. The post-war optimism and suburban complacency common to other American works of this period does not figure into McCarthy's novel, Although smoking of the past was viewed as glamorous and romantic, its cancerous, harmful effects are now a common fact. The journey from childhood to maturity is guided primarily by the search for meaning. In All the Pretty Horses , protagonist John Grady Cole leaves home to find the place where he belongs in the world.
Throughout the novel, John Grady chased the However; what makes this novel so unique is how McCarthy manipulates some of these important tropes. They are still present
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