Universität Mannheim
Anglistisches Seminar
Landeskunde USA:
The Western and the American West
Philip Bracher
Sommersemester 2006

The Development of John Grady Cole
in Corman McCarthy’s
All the Pretty Horses

Term Paper

by

Lydia Gaukler

4. Semester Diplom-Anglistik mit wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Qualifikation
Mannheim, den 14. Juni 2006

Content  I

1. Introduction  1

2. The Plot  2

3. The Character of John Grady Cole  5

4. John Grady Cole’s Journey  6
4.1. The Beginning of the Journey and the Importance of Loss  7
4.2. The First Part of the Journey and the Importance of Responsibility  8
4.3. The Second Part of the Journey and the Importance of Love  10
4.4. The Third Part of the Journey and the Importance of Violence  11
4.5. The End of the Journey and the Importance of Guilt  12

5. All the Pretty Horses as Bildungsroman  15

6. Conclusion  17

Literature  18

“They heard somewhere in that tenantless night a bell that tolled and ceased where no bell was and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing.” (All the Pretty Horses) “There isn′t a place in the world you can go where they don′t know about cowboys and Indians and the myth of the West.”¹

(Cormac McCarthy) 

1. Introduction

Cormac McCarthy is one of the most famous contemporary writers in America and is celebrated as one of the major American novelists of his time. However, this has not always been the case. Despite his earlier writings, it was for McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses that he finally became famous for.² With the publication of this sixth novel, for which he won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award³, he gained widespread recognition as an American writer. All the Pretty Horses was first published in 1992 and is the first part of his Border Trilogy. 

As Morrison notes

most of McCarthy’s novels [...] involve both metaphorical and literal journeys which bring their voyagers inevitably into a series of conflicts and confrontations with themselves as well as with the various communities intersected be their wanderings. And, in most of these novels, the central characters’ journeys, however random in time and place they may be, are apparently rooted in dysfunctinal families and troubled filial relationships.⁴

This also applies to All The Pretty Horses. In this novel, Cormac McCarthy concerns himself with the development of his main protagonist, the 16-year-old John Grady Cole: At the beginning of the novel, McCarthy portrays John Grady as a boy in search for adventure, freedom and a home. During his journey to Mexico however, he soon has to grow up. He has to witness the execution of his compagnion; he is put in jail even though he is innocent; he has to fight with other convicts, and at last he is attacked by a hired killer. He thus has to learn that the world is a dangerous and violent place and that the world portrayed in All The Pretty Horses has nothing to do with an idyllic wild country as the novel’s title might suggest. In the end, John Grady has hardened. He has killed a man, he has lost his innocence and he returns as a man and as a hero.

In the following, I will first outline the plot of the novel. Then I shall want to concentrate on the development of its main character.

Last, I like to discuss whether All the Pretty Horses may be read as a Bildungsroman. I will come to the conclusion that McCarthy′s novel is partly a Bildungsroman and partly a Western for several reasons which I shall point out in due course.

2. The Plot

The novel is set in Texas, in 1949, and opens with the death of John Grady Cole′s grandfather. After this terrible loss, John Grady Cole wants to run the ranch, but his mother plans to sell it. As he is homeless and with no apparent future in Texas, he hopes to find fulfillment in the big world outside of his country. Thus, he leaves the ranch together with his best friend Lacey Rawlins.

In the course of their journey, they meet Jimmy Blevins, a thirteen year old boy who has run away from home. He claims being sixteen and riding his own horse, both of which is a lie. Even though Cole and Rawlins do not trust Blevins and are sure that his horse is stolen, they allow Blevins to join them. The trio rides together for several days until Blevins panics in a thunderstorm. Terribly afraid of being killed by lightning, he wants to outride the bad weather. When John Grady finds him later, he is naked, having taken off his clothes because of its metal fasteners. Blevins has not only lost his clothing, but also his pistol and his horse. John Grady puts him up onto his own horse and they continue their ride. Soon they arrive in Encantada, where they see Blevins′ horse and recapture it the following day. They are noticed and to escape the pursuing riders, they split up.

John Grady and Rawlins find work as cowboys at the Hacienda de Nuestra Senora de la Purisima. The ranch is owned by Don Hector Rocha, who is interested in bree-ding wild mountain horses. Though he mistrusts the Americans for their motivations to come to Mexico, he orders them to tame sixteen wild horses. Having accomplis-hed their task, Grady and Rawlins start to feel at home. Soon, John Grady falls in love with Alejandra Rocha, Don Rocha′s beautiful daughter. A few days later, Grady is invited to Duena Alfonsa, Alejandra′s grandaunt and godmother. She forbids an affair between him and her grandniece. However, Grady and Alejandra ignore Alfon-sa′s warning, and they become secret lovers.

[....]

1 McCarthy. „Cormac McCarthy′s Venomous Fiction.“ April 19, 1992, Sunday, Late Edition - Final.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/mccarthy-venom.html - 12.06.2006

2 See Phillips (1996): p.433.

3 See Arnold (1994): p.12.

4 Morrison. Ed. Arnold (1993): p.176 f.