The Theme of Initiation in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. Introduction Cormac McCarthy is one of the most important writers in contemporary American literature and is known worldwide for his Western novels. One of his Western novels, All the Pretty Horses (1992), tells the story of John Grady Cole, a cowboy from Texas who travels southward to Mexico to pursue his cowboy dream after the Second World War. The novel won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992, and attracted a great deal of attention from critics. Many scholars have used myth criticism to interpret the novel and agree that McCarthy subverts the myth of the West that the American nation is so proud of. Allen Berry (2009) argues in her …show more content…
Mentor figures can be good spiritual guides who nourish and inspire the protagonist’s mind, or they can be evil guides who may lead the protagonist to wrong paths and hasten the protagonist’s downfall. In All the Pretty Horses, John Grady is confronted with some characters who are intrinsically evil, such as the corrupt Captain Ral, whom he encounters in prison, or the prison bully Pérez. More accurately, they can be labeled John Grady’s “mentor-antagonists”, because not only are they Grady’s antagonists, who place many obstacles in the way of Grady’s quest, but also do they embrace a completely different set of principles and stances. In other words, their realistic, snobbish and evil notions constitute an antagonistic force to counteract John Grady’s idealism and innocence. After being evicted from Rocha’s estate, John Grady and Rawlins are arrested and imprisoned, where they have an unexpected meeting with Blevins. An old man in the prison tells them that Blevins, while trying to retrieve his horse, shot three men, one of whom was killed. The hidden dangers planted by Grady’s innocence and heroism at their first meeting have finally erupted. At this point, Captain Ral appears and begins his unofficial interrogation. He even tortures Rawlins and John Grady, which is more of a flaunting of his power. He insists that power manipulates the truth, whereas John Grady believes that there is only one truth – “truth is what happened” and thinks “it aint what comes out of somebody’s mouth” (168). Their differing views on truth show Grady’s simple and upright sense of morality and justice. However, in the Captain’s view, truth is an elusive thing which can be created by power, or can disappear with power – it “will be gone”, and “will be in other hands” (168). In the prison, he is the one who creates “truth” at this time. After the interrogation, Grady learns from the old man in
On the inside front cover of a used copy of Cormac McCarthy’s 1992 novel All the Pretty Horses lies a note, presumably written by someone who had gifted the novel to someone else. The note reads: “In my opinion, the best Western from the best Western author. Great spiritual ruminations.” Upon reading the line ‘the best Western from the best Western author,’ images of gruff and mysterious cowboys catching bandits and riding off into the sunset immediately fills one's head. However, one will almost
McCarthy simply stresses imagery, setting, and conflict all of which show that effortless decisions can lead to great outcomes. Cormac McCarthy’s detailed imagery builds imagination for the reader. For example, John Grady’s vivid dream painted a beautiful picture of what makes him feel at peace, “... colts ran with dams and trampled down the flowers in a haze of pollen that hung in the sun like powdered gold… their manes and tails blew off of them like spume… moved all of them in a resonance that
in America’s history, but also in contemporary society. The cowboy has always been regarded as the epitome of freedom, machismo and individuality, and his character maintains a certain romantic quality about it. Riding the range with his trusty horse, forging the frontier, and exposing himself to the mercy of the wilderness, the cowboy lives for himself alone and yet he lives the life about which the rest of society can only fantasize. The cowboy, fearless hero of the West, has become a cultural
Independent Study Project Written Essay: The Road The Road is a novel written by Cormac McCarthy in 2006, which is a post-apocalyptic fiction that has been adapted to film. The film adaptation of The Road was directed by John Hillcoat and was released in 2009. The novel received great praise and there was an immediate plan to adapt the novel to a film just a few years after it was written. The Road is a story of survival in the post-apocalyptic world, which brings the main characters in tough,